New UK ‘music 101′ plan
p2pnet news view | Kids & Kartels:- The HBK syndrome – that’s Hollywood Brainwashes Kids – has made its way to Britain.
“Musicians have teamed up with government ministers and others to produce a ‘manifesto’ to enhance young people’s music-making,” says a BBC story here.
But, “already this typically Blairite bundle of good intentions is being hijacked (with not a little cooperation from the minders in Whitehall) in order to inflict copyright lessons on schoolchildren, from pre-school onwards,” says The Register’s John Lettice here.
The fact the manifesto was launched from EMI’s London studio (EMI is one of the Big Four record labels) will tell you who inspired the ‘initiative’ and where it’s going.
And, “Key to all this will be the increased use in schools of ‘para-professional support staff’ – made possible by the changes to teachers’ contracts aimed at reducing their workload,” says the Beeb.
Among other things, the manifesto will “identify new opportunities for young people to create, record and promote their own music, complemented by effective copyright education and support for live performance,” it says.
Lettice refers to a recent half-day seminar on copyright education when the Times Educational Supplement reported, “Estelle Morris, the arts minister [she gave the keynote], education and music industry professionals expressed concern that children were increasingly downloading illegally copied material from the Internet.”
And according to The Guardian, EMI is planning a conference for teachers, and “working on lesson plans to explain copyright properly.”
The UK government “seems to be falling hook, line and sinker for the curious notion that you need to understand that downloading music is stealing before you can possibly learn about, to make and to enjoy music,” says Lettice.
One wonders if the para-professionals mentioned by the BBC will be dealing with copyright education in the same way as their counterparts in the US.
There, a volunteer (who just happened to be an excutive working for a company partly owned by Disney, among others) and a teacher explained the concept of using a PC for downloading, which they called ”morally and ethically wrong”.
The students played ‘The Film Producer’ and ‘The Starving Artist’ and were asked questions such as ‘Has anyone ever copied your homework? How did this make you feel?’
After, the teacher asked one boy: ‘Will you stop copying music online and download the right way?’
‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I’ll go to the music store and buy more CDs.’
“Students learn to repeat the program’s motto: ‘If you don’t pay for it, you’ve stolen it’.”
Download a .pdf of the UK manifesto here.
August 7th, 2004 at 4:02 am
HBK has been going on for a long time!!!! Don’t forget PAYOLA!!!!!! The labels have been brainwashing people with music for a long time!!!!!! They have been setting the Trends in music though their PAYOLA to Radio. The Labels don’t care what kind of CRAP they shove down your throat’s remenber Willam Hung!!!!! She Bangs She Bangs!!!! Wish someone would Bang him right over the Head!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 9th, 2004 at 11:40 am
This is disgusting.
Just when I thought the music “industry” couldn’t stoop any lower, they’re now (with the help of our brain-dead governments) teaching our children about what’s “morally correct”. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so vile and hypocritical.
August 10th, 2004 at 7:50 am
Right on! I f***in’ hate that guy!!!! It really shows how sick and twisted ppl are that he was so popular!
August 17th, 2004 at 5:13 pm
People buy his CD out of pity.