Microsoft: Kid Pirates Just Don't Understand, We'll Teach 'Em
Microsoft released the results of a survey today indicating that the small percentage of young people who know the laws around copyright are much less likely to violate them than are kids who do not.
The survey was released along with a new website at mybytes.com ("They're MY bytes, not yours!") and a newly announced curriculum for middle and high schools to teach the Microsoft economic and political agenda. “Intellectual Property Rights Education" is the innocuous name of the Microsoft provided curriculum materials.
Key survey findings include:
- Almost half of the teenagers surveyed (49 percent) said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software from the Internet.
- Only one in 10 (11 percent) said they understood the rules “very well.”
- Among teenagers who said they were familiar with the laws, more than eight in 10 (82 percent) said illegal downloaders should be punished. In contrast, slightly more than half (57 percent) of those unfamiliar with the laws said violators should be punished.
The MyBytes Site
MyBytes is a charming site where young people can remix their own, newly copyrighted ringtones and watch short video interviews with good kids and a couple of bad kids having IP revelations.
To be fair, the remixed ringtones can have one of four licenses attached to them, including unrestricted, unrestricted use without remixing and two variations of for sale. It's a ways from Creative Commons, but it's interesting.
There's one tepid perspective mildly critical of the copyright regime on the site. It's pretty remarkable and it's coming to a school near you.
Teaching the Children
The survey indicates that kids learn more about copyright from their parents than from anywhere else. So if you've got kids in school, make sure they know that other perspectives exist on sites like CreativeCommons, CopyFight.Corante.com and Genetic Resources Action International - Grain.org - because this issue extends beyond music and movies to include debates over IP law in genetics, agriculture, cultural tradition and more.
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As Johnny Depp is brilliant again in "Pirates of the Caribbean",copyrighted kid info boosts
Am I getting it right? MS is about to be teaching stuff at schools? That goes well into "Big Brother" area for me. I'm not judging illegal/legal downloading, thats a completely different matter, but letting a corporation into schools, to mess with young people point of view on matters related to this corporations business is a bit too much in my book.
You have to remember that to many, many people the notion that there is some "other side" to the IP rights issue is like saying there is an other side to assault and battery (and in many places, the penalties are worse for violating IP rights legislation).
I am therefore unsurprised by this, but it does mean that people like us need to shout a hell of a lot louder.