More Industry Anti-Piracy Propaganda: Former EMI Anti-Piracy Boss Launches 'Educational' Program

from the 2+2=? dept

Fri, Oct 9th 2009 1:47am — Mike Masnick

With the school year having only recently started up, we had already covered the RIAA's silly propaganda campaign masked as an "educational resource." Of course, that's not the only such program. The MPAA has offered up its own "copyright education" as has The Copyright Alliance -- an operation whose entire purpose appears to be to push entertainment industry nonsense and propaganda without any factual support or basis. It looks like there's another such program coming out of the UK as well. Torrentfreak alerts us to the news that EMI's former anti-piracy boss just happened to have "left" EMI in time to create her own "educational campaign" about copyright for school children as young as five. The good news, though, is that the reporter from The Daily Mail wasn't buying any of it, raising questions about why five year olds should be learning about copyright from industry supplied sources. The article also questions the claim that this campaign was financed independently from the recording industry, calling out the fact that the woman's own LinkedIn profile indicated otherwise, until she changed it right after being interviewed (funny, that...).

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

Filed Under: copyright, educational campaigns, propaganda, uk
Companies: emi

23 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Bullrunner, 9 Oct 2009 @ 2:59am

Get 'em while they're young
I love the idea of trying to educate children about copyright and the evils of sharing digital media.

It's exactly the same process as all the other educational campaigns: teach them in primary school, in their formative years, and the lessons will stay with them for ever.

Look how it's worked for smoking, drinking, respect, political correctness, crime.

Um...hang on a minute. Oh crap.

1st law of child behaviour: tell a kid NOT to do something and they immediately want to do it.

Genius.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 3:23am

And while the article certainly calls out the industry, the mail is no longer accepting comments on the article after all of 22 comments have been posted.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 3:53am

FU
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 5:01am

Leave them kids alone
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TDR, 9 Oct 2009 @ 5:52am

"Just another brick in the wall..."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:27am

I actually find this quite fucking insidious. As a UK citizen I can tell you I'm absolutely outraged about this and if I even get even the slightest sniff of such indoctrination going on at my son's school there will be high fucking murder - I personally guarantee it. Somebody's head needs to roll for this.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:29am

Turns out the movie Idiocracy had it right in the end...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve R. (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:38am

You don't even own your own property
John Manchester had an excellent comment on the article: "Intellectual property rights are a misnomer - they are real rights granted to corporations/patent holders to control your property."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:31am

folks are angry . . but about what? teaching respect for property? for the basic human right of controlling what you create? there are big companies stealing ideas from artists and writers too - is the issue big versus small or the right of a creator to decide how to exploit his work? I know lots of individuals who have made lots of money on their movies and books and ideas and pictures - and they wouldn't have made it if big corporations just took their rights away because there wasn't any copyright.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sheinen, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:39am

Shouldn't they focus on teaching them to read and write properly before they start introducing a load of bollocks to the curriculum?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Infamous Joe (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:24am

Re:
for the basic human right of controlling what you create?

You are confusing "basic human right" with "government granted monopoly"

Try again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:42am

Re:
Hey, we're just another brick in the wall.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:49am

Re:
"there are big companies stealing ideas from artists and writers too"

It's mostly big corporations that are lobbying for these intellectual property laws and it has nothing to do with the notion that they want to protect artists and the altruistic and benevolent nature of these corporations. It has everything to do with their selfishness.

If these intellectual property laws are for individuals and artists let them lobby for this and not just big corporations and lets keep big corporations out of the process and see how far these laws go. I bet if everyone got to vote on these laws they would disappear because they're not for the individuals, they're for the big corporations. and don't give me this nonsense that big corporations know what's best for individuals and the masses better than those individuals and the masses either.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:15am

Should 5 year olds learn about copyright from Torrentfreak instead? Perhaps they can cruise the pirate bay chat boards to learn all about it.

Yeah, that sounds good.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
roxanneadams (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:33am

Re:
This isn't about the individual basic human right of controlling personal creations, artwork, etc. This is all about multinational corporate greed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:53am

Re:
folks are angry . . but about what?

About industry driven propaganda.

By the way, who do you work for?

teaching respect for property?

These education campaigns are not about respect for property. Copyright is not property, it's a gov't granted privilege. Respect for property is something entirely different.

for the basic human right of controlling what you create?

No such right has ever existed.

there are big companies stealing ideas from artists and writers too

No doubt. Who do you work for, again?

is the issue big versus small or the right of a creator to decide how to exploit his work?

Neither. It's about why any industry written propaganda should be allowed in schools.

I know lots of individuals who have made lots of money on their movies and books and ideas and pictures - and they wouldn't have made it if big corporations just took their rights away because there wasn't any copyright.

Who do you work for again?

Anyway, what does that have to do with a propaganda campaign in favor of the big companies...?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Valkor, 9 Oct 2009 @ 10:11am

Re:
Actually, they should skip the "load of bollocks" part entirely. That's why so many people are hostile to the idea of public school.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
anon, 9 Oct 2009 @ 10:54am

Re:
J.R.R. Tolkin

He wrote the lord of the rings before copyright was established. In fact in America he wasn't releasing with any kind of alacrity. So this other company wrote and published the book eventually J.R.R. wanted to release his work here but the pirated version was cheaper and it was already released. So what did he do, he had a note on the front page saying that his was the official version it was more expensive as well. He probably got rich the official version outsold the pirated version and the other company is no longer around.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 10:56am

Re: Re:
"This is all about multinational corporate greed."

Correction, multinational corporate selfishness.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 11:52am

Re:
They should be learning from their parents. Don't shill, it makes you look an idiot.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Flashman, 9 Oct 2009 @ 3:11pm

Take away recess
Why are we teaching IP rights in school at all?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
anon, 9 Oct 2009 @ 11:01pm

Re: Take away recess
Because children are easily brainwas... err "educated"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Oct 2009 @ 10:44am

Wow. Criticism of a curriculum without a copy of it in hand. This is thoughtful analysis at its best.
[ link to this | view in thread ]