Entertainment Industry Continues Teaching Students One Sided Lesson
from the now,-children,-thinking-for-yourself-is-bad dept
You may remember that last fall the entertainment industry began a project where they went into schools to teach a "lesson" on why file sharing was bad that included the lesson, "if you didn't pay for it, you stole it." Of course, to hammer this lesson home, the industry gave away for free DVD players and trips to Hollywood to those students who could come up with the best essays to express why anything free must be stolen (sort out the irony for yourself). Now the industry says they're so happy with the program that they're gearing up to use it next school year as well. This raises the very important question of who the hell is letting the industry into the classroom to teach a very one-sided lesson? Anyway, while the article does a good job of expressing the opinions of those who oppose this program, ("It's rather like inviting the American insurance industry into the classroom to tell kids about the future of health care") the reporter clearly got confused on the specifics of the entertainment industry's lawsuits. The article claims the MPAA and the RIAA have been suing downloaders - which isn't true. The MPAA hasn't filed any lawsuits specifically against people for using file sharing. They have filed suit against someone caught digitizing and uploading a movie though. Also, and this point is missed by any number of articles on the topic, the RIAA isn't suing people for downloading unauthorized tracks, but for sharing those tracks and offering them to others to download.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Arrests made?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
I think it's sad that the main stream media doesn't understand the difference between uploaders and downloaders. But it seems that the music industry doesn't either.
I actually sent my eight year old to school with a set of responses to disprove any of this garbage, complete with documentation and legal arguments, precidents etc. Just in case they decide to do it in her school. I don't think they will, but still... you can never be too safe.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
But in this case I think I can guess at why the reporter confused who the RIAA was sueing. The RIAA is sueing people to stop illegal downloading thus the people it is sueing must be the downloaders since they are performing the action the RIAA wishing to stop.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
legal advice
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
First Place for reality ala' 1984 ...
I would love to be a young smart ass student in one of those schools that is offered this " deal " ... I can just see my essay now on why I can not and do not want to win the essay contest for fear of arrest and reprisals due to receiving a free DVD player knowing that anything I receive free must be stolen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: First Place for reality ala' 1984 ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: First Place for reality ala' 1984 ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]