p2pnet news view |  Kids & Kartels:- The EFF has launched an effort to counter entertainment industry ‘educational copyright’ programs.

“Anyone who believes things are as bad as they can get with self-interest corporate groups undermining freedom of choice, freedom of expression and freedom of speech should prepare themselves,” I said in 2007.

“There’s a new anti-consumer gang in town, and it’ll be more actively poisonous than anything you’ve ever seen before.”

I was wrong, I went on. “It’s even worse.”

I was referring to the cartels’ Copyright Alliance plan to mind-rape our children.

Our own daughter isn’t in danger of corporate pollution: we educate her ourselves at home.

But for those less fortunate, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has introduced a Teaching Copyright” curriculum and website, “to help educators give students the real story about their digital rights and responsibilities on the Internet and beyond”.

The idea that intellectual property laws should be taught to children for any reason or at any level is of course totally ridiculous.

But thanks to ceaseless efforts by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Time Warner, Viacom, Fox, Sony, NBC Universal and Disney, it’s now necessary, and the EFF is to be congratulated for taking the lead in countering industry efforts to indoctrinate our children with specious ’standards’.

Says the EFF »»»

The Copyright Alliance — backed by the recording, broadcast, and software industries — has given its curriculum the ominous title “Think First, Copy Later.” This is just the latest example of copyright-focused educational materials portraying the use of new technology as a high-risk behavior.

For example, industry materials have routinely compared downloading music to stealing a bicycle, even though many downloads are lawful, and making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal even though many such videos are also lawful.

EFF created Teaching Copyright as a balanced curriculum encouraging students to make full and fair use of technology that is revolutionizing learning and the exchange of information.

“Kids are bombarded with messages that using new technology is illegal,” says EFF activist Richard Esguerra.

“Instead of approaching the issues from a position of fear, Teaching Copyright encourages inquiry and greater understanding. This is a balanced curriculum, asking students to think about their role in the online world and to make informed choices about their behavior.”

The Teaching Copyright curriculum was developed with the input of educators from across the U.S. and has been designed to satisfy a tale at what layersthe International Society for Technology in Education and the California State Board of Education, says the EFF.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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May, 2009