p2pnet news view |  Kids & Kartels:- The corporate record industry is under fire, “after launching a scheme to teach primary schoolchildren — possibly as young as five — not to illegally download music from the internet,” says Britain’s the Daily Mail.

“Lessons teaching pupils about copyright law are already being piloted in six schools and could be rolled out across the country.

“Critics suggest the initiative is designed to protect commercial interests rather than provide a valuable educational experience.”

The get ‘em while they’re young child mind-rape scheme is organised by music industry ‘consultant’ Ruth Katz who, by an amazing coincidence, also works for Big 4 music gang member EMI.

But that’s okay because she’s, “funding the school scheme independently,” although by another amazing coincidence, it’s supported by music industry outfits, “including the  EMI Music Sound Foundation — a charity set up by the label to improve music education,” says the story.

Critics, however, “have questioned whether young primary schoolchildren would even know how to download music without assistance”.

But why not?

This particular travesty is happening in Britain, but it’s no more than part of an overall entertainment industry campaign to warp the minds of children by introducing copyright and intellectual property law into classrooms.

It looks fantastic — unbelievable — but it’s happening.

And it’s nothing new.

The, “most recent marketing triumph by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA, has been to, “scam Penn State University and the University of Rochester into becoming record industry cops and salesmen,” said p2pnet as far back as in 2004.

Unpaid, of course.

It went on a»»»

If students download `product` from the Big Five record labels from `services` supported by the Big Five record labels instead of from online file sharing networks, they [the students] can avoid being dragged into court by the Big Five record labels, says the RIAA, with its oppo in the movie industry, the MPAA, right behind.

So that`s nicely in hand and in the meanwhile, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) with the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) right behind, of course hasn`t dropped a frame in its campaign to win the hearts and minds of children in junior and mid-level schools.

It`s force-feeding high-toned moralistic `educational` programs to the kids — which is interesting given that Hollywood is home to some of the most immoral, greedy and dishonest people on the face of the earth.

And what makes it even more interesting is that teachers and school administrators are not only letting them do it, they`re actively helping them.

In October, last year, p2pnet reported that Hollywood was embarking on a project to pump anti-piracy messages to 900,000 students through a program being integrated into more than 36,000 classrooms across America.

Carrying the message to children in grades five to nine via volunteer teachers was (and still is, says a Boston Globe story here) Junior Achievement.

It`s offering students DVD players, DVD movies, theater tickets and all-expenses-paid trips to Hollywood for winning essays about the illegalities of file-sharing, it said when the program was launched, going on, Teachers, too, can win prizes for effectively communicating the approved message in class.

In the Globe story, The industry is dominated by five studio-based conglomerates that also own major recording labels, television networks, radio stations, and other media subsidiaries, writes Kathleen Sharp. Its antifilm-piracy curriculum was developed to preempt problems suffered by the music industry, which for years has claimed that it loses as much as $4 billion a year from illegal copying.

It has MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor saying 500,000 movies are being downloaded every day around the world, although he wasn`t sure how many of those are illegal: We know that one area we have to attack is on the educational front.

Like the RIAA, Sharp continues, the MPAA has started to sue those who download content illegally. But unlike the recording industry, the studios are tapping a nonprofit business group to bring its antipiracy message to young people.

The group is Junior Achievement.

And Sharp`s story gets even more alarming.

Earlier this year, Junior Achievement volunteers debuted the industry`s program in California classrooms, she says.

One volunteer, Steve Dolcemaschio, an executive with E! Entertainment Television Inc. (jointly owned by Comcast Corp., The Walt Disney Co., and Liberty Media Corp.) worked with Diedre Ndiaye, who teaches speech and drama to sixth- through eighth-grade students at Markham Middle School in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. Many children in the class indicated they had never downloaded anything before.

The volunteer and the teacher worked from a 25-page classroom guide to explain the concept of using a computer to download files, which they called morally and ethically wrong.` The students played roles such as `The Film Producer,` `The Starving Artist,` and were asked questions such as `Has anyone ever copied your homework? How did this make you feel?`

By the end of one session, the teacher asked one boy: `Will you stop copying music online and download the right way?`- and `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`.

A few days ago the FBI, in effect acting for the entertainment industry, raided schools in Arizona looking for `pirate` contraband in the shape of music and movie files.

Sharp concludes with a quote from Alex Molnar, a professor who is director of commercialism in education at Arizona State University.

Commercialism has no place in the classroom, he said. This program is a time vampire. Is it more important for kids to hear the movie industry`s message or should they be learning to read and pass new test standards?

And she winds up with a comment from Darrell Luzzo, senior vp of Junior Achievement who defends the industry`s antipiracy program by saying it`s not meant to cover all aspects of copyright law. Rather, the idea is to encourage student debate.

We are learning ways to enhance classroom discussions.

Junior achievement still exists.

And it’s still, “Educating Students Worldwide,” it declares proudly.

Meanwhile, the UK mind-rape project, “has tremendous support from music industry associations, notably the IFPI [International Federation of the Phonographic Industry] and UK Music [the organisation that supports artists` interests], the EMI Music Sound Foundation and the Department for Children, Schools and Families along with other music-related industries,” Katz  says in the Daily Mail story.

That’s a surprise.

She also says she wants to, ” extend the project across the country with Government support by September 2010″.

After The Mail on Sunday contacted her about the project, “she changed her profile, removing all mention of the project`s anti-piracy aim and groups supporting it,” says the story, adding:

“It then read: `I have initiated an education programme for primary schoolchildren to teach them about the broader aspects of creativity and making music’.”

__________________________

p2pnet is the only online digital media news source to chronicle corporate efforts to corrupt our children since the Big 4 launched their sue ‘em all campaign in 2003, which soon after spread to Europe and other parts of the world.

If you want to read more about continuing corporate efforts to turn our children into mindless consumer drones, check out our Kids ‘n Kartels section.

(Cheers, Basher)

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Daily Mail – Anger at record industry bosses over school anti-piracy lessons for children as young as five, October 3, 2009
p2pnet – MPAA: brainwashing children, April 27, 2004

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 8:08 am and is filed under Kids and Kartels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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