Captain Copyright Gets A Rewrite?

from the let's-try-that-again dept

Tue, Aug 15th 2006 11:40am — Mike Masnick

Remember Captain Copyright? The educational program up in Canada that appeared to tell an incredibly one-sided story concerning copyrights to children? Yes, the same one who may have "copied" his entire idea from a different Captain Copyright and who was violating the copyright of others while also claiming you couldn't link to the site if you said anything negative and you couldn't even make use of fair use copying of text from the site. Yes, that one. Turns out the folks who created this bumbling hero are now saying they've heard the critics and are about to do a total rewrite of the Captain Copyright concept, including a much more balanced look at copyright issues -- though, as Michael Geist notes, this only comes after a bunch of schools dumped their links to Captain Copyright's site and the group behind it is getting worried about losing some funding. Geist also points out that the explanation for the bizarre and totally unenforceable linking policy makes no sense. The group claims it was put in place to "protect children from inappropriate content." Ah, right, the ever popular "to protect the children" excuse. Of course, it's hard to see how banning inbound links protects any children at all. It seems more like a weak attempt to protect the folks who created Captain Copyright from criticism (though, perhaps they think of themselves as children). I guess we should remember this isn't Captain Logic we're dealing with here, but Captain Copycat... er... Copyright.

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12 Comments

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dorpus, 15 Aug 2006 @ 11:52am

Then How About Captain Hacker?
Should children instead worship Captain Hacker, who writes computer viruses, "liberates" other people's credit card or social security numbers, defaces web sites, sells copies of movies on DVD's with magic marker labels, makes death threats against others all the time? Captain Hacker is 18 years old, wears black clothing all the time, thinks he's smart, and can be found at a fantasy gaming shop in any city.
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- DittoBox, 15 Aug 2006 @ 12:08pm
  
  Re: Then How About Captain Hacker?
  That's Captain Cracker to you.
  
  Oh, and I fail to see the difference. Both are teaching horrible things to children. Both are screwing people left and right and both generally make a mess of things.
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  - Sanguine Dream, 15 Aug 2006 @ 12:22pm
    
    Re: Re: Then How About Captain Hacker?
    And they both tend to be hypocritical of the actions of others.
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- Wizard Prang, 15 Aug 2006 @ 1:36pm
  
  Dorpus misses the point yet again
  You seem to have gotten that down to a fine art.
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- Ben, 15 Aug 2006 @ 3:47pm
  
  Re: Then How About Captain Hacker?
  So now you hate goths and people who play fantasy games dorpus? bigot.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2006 @ 12:28pm

Captain Dorpus strikes again
Honestly now, what did your offensive have to do with the article?
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- Mikester, 15 Aug 2006 @ 1:27pm
  
  Re: Captain Dorpus strikes again
  Very little, as usual. Dorpus is the king of trolls around here.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2006 @ 1:36pm

Actually...
Captain Hacker would be a positive influence on children. What, with stealing people's credit cards and other personal information they'd be less inclined to give out their own personal information to strangers on the web thus solving the "online child predator" problem...
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- Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2006 @ 1:59pm
  
  Re: Actually...
  remember who we are talking about here, you might want to include a few "protect the children" phrases here and there, then they might listen
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  - DittoBox, 15 Aug 2006 @ 2:54pm
    
    Re: Re: Actually...
    A few envelopes stuffed with cash taped to the bottom of a classy restaurant's seat, the one near the north eastern window (know what I'm talking about Orin?) somewhere in down town DC at 12am on August 16th or something...
    
    Yeah.
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Monarch, 15 Aug 2006 @ 2:41pm

It's just that Dorkus er... Dorpus is a Troll that sticks up for Big Business and Buracracy in Government
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rijit (profile), 15 Aug 2006 @ 3:24pm

Captain Patent?
Think I need to get a Trade Mark on Captain Patent? He could teach kids the value of being a patent troll, to sue companies many years after they start turning profits for patent infringement, and how to make the Patent Office approve worthless patents (though the Patent Office needs no real help with that).
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