EMI Tries To Hide Kids Education Anti-Piracy Objective
Written by enigmax on October 04, 2009A music industry consultant has changed her Linkedin profile when it was revealed that the music lessons she’s giving in schools aren’t quite as they seem. Ruth Katz, who worked in anti-piracy enforcement for EMI and still works for the company as a consultant, is lecturing kids as young as five on anti-piracy issues.
Ruth Katz began her employment with EMI back in 1995 as VP in ‘Release Planning’, a position she held for the next few years. Then in 2002 she took the position of VP in EMI’s ‘Content Protection’ department and for the next 7 years she battled against music piracy on behalf of the company.
In March 2009 she left EMI to concentrate on her company ‘Ruth Katz Consultancy Ltd’ which according to the UK government’s Intellectual Property Office website engages in the following activities;
Advisory, negotiating and representational services; legal services; anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting services; lobbying services; protection of copyright relating to music; investigation services in relation to intellectual property; information and advisory services relating to any of the aforesaid services.
However, Katz didn’t forget her old company. Indeed, she’s currently working hard for EMI trying to contain pre-release music piracy. But that isn’t all she’s doing.
Katz is currently engaged in an education program for primary school children, ostensibly to teach them about music and creativity.
These lessons are being trialled in six schools in the UK and if successful could be extended throughout the whole country. So what is the problem with educating children as young as five about creativity and making music? Well, nothing, but Katz isn’t exactly being upfront about what she’s trying to achieve.
While her current Linkedin profile says Katz has “initiated an education programme for primary schoolchildren to teach them about the broader aspects of creativity and making music,” it didn’t say that before the UK’s Mail on Sunday contacted her about her lessons.
So what did it say a few minutes earlier? Google cache to the rescue;
I have initiated an education programme for primary school children to teach them about copyright and anti piracy. The project has tremendous support from music industry associations most notably the IFPI and UK Music, the EMI Music Sound Foundation, the government department ~ the DSCF along with other music related industries. A pilot programme involving seven schools will go live in September with a full roll-out to English primary schools in September 2010
Busted.
Katz said: “I’m financing the project entirely myself because I believe it’s an important subject.’
In England alone there are more than 17,000 primary schools. If she’s successful and gets her classes rolled out to them all, that’s going to cost a huge amount.
Financing it all her herself? Yeah, right.
Previously: Cinemas Must Warn Visitors Of ‘Anti-Pirate’ Goggles
Next: Popularity of Pirated TV-Shows Still Rising
90 Responses
So, they’re brainwashing kids now, charming..
Katz said: “I’m financing the project entirely myself because I believe it’s an important subject.’
The project has tremendous support from music industry associations most notably the IFPI and UK Music, the EMI Music Sound Foundation, the government department ~ the DSCF along with other music related industries.
Uhu…
Don’t know if I like the idea of my children being lobbied.
Especially at such a young age.
It offends me.
There will be parental outrage if this goes through. I promise that.
Anything to protect the Rich Man’s profit margin at all costs. This kind of thinking reflects the failure of capitalism.
Looks like Ruth has been at the old Hitler youth manual.What about Pinky+perky and watch with mother you SAD-BITCH.
Pirates! because of your illegal file sharing, look what the kids have to go through.
I hate you, pirates!
Damn, like something out of Jennifer Government.
Leave them kids alone you devious, evil fucking bitch
@2
You won’t be alone
Good thing our favorite Dutch writer doesn’t get involved with propaganda
Whats the British word for women like these?
Is it twat, whore, tart or c*nt?
I think all apply.
Stories like these, of the industry exploiting impressionable minds just p i s s me off no end.
I sincerely hope something bad (physically) happens to her.
@Reasoned mind,
Come on, if you are going to impersonate the reasoned moron nick, you gotto be a bit more creative, besides, he does not report for work at scumbag MAFIAA HQ so early / on Sundays.
Nesto being a close friend of Ney doesn’t really affect the objectivity of this site.
This reminds me of the war on drugs. How ridiculous.
and now off to Church. The one with the upside down cross
Whats that a pasta necklace ?
Now Junior.. you should already know lily allen and her label overlords already own the copyright for that. Why can’t you remember last weeks lesson? What do you mean you haven’t been writing anything down, because you dont want to be sued?? Did I teach that? OOPS
So Fredrik, guess Ukraine didn’t work out right?
We’ll keep you busy for a while.
Disgusting.
She’s still trying to cover it all up and act like she hasn’t done this.
These private companies are preaching to the kids, it’s not even the government doing this, it’s these companies.
They’re basically trying to make even more money by getting at these kids as early as possible, it’s a marketing campaign.
That’s why she’s trying to cover it all up.
“So, they’re brainwashing kids now, charming..”
“Anything to protect the Rich Man’s profit margin at all costs. This kind of thinking reflects the failure of capitalism.”
totally agree.. GG
Lol. They are “catching them young”.
Uh… I miss the Real Reasoned Mind..
Emm.. did I say that? I though I was thinking on my mind..
Well…
I just hope it doesn’t affect me in any way.
“and now off to Church. The one with the upside down cross”
Nice try, but a bit hard to impersonate me, isnt it? ;)
Urgh.
Bitch, if you are going to do something like this, at least have the decency to be upfront about it.
I hate my country sometimes.
Nothing wrong with teaching them about the law, I think its a must. However, the laws should be changed, but for now, they are still the laws. Children cannot know what the laws says? Okay well, lets stop with telling children they cannot steal or murder people. Actually, we should teach them to break the laws in any possible way, and tatoo a pirate flag on their back.
Comon guys, the law is the law, try change it if you disagree with it, but don’t complain about people teaching children the law.
@8 – ‘Liar’
torrentfreak has a clear pro-filesharing stance, it has never made any claim to being an unopinionated objective news source, nor has it tried to influence any school ciriculum.
@ ‘AlienDK’
it didn’t sound like she wanted to objectivly teach kids about the law – that would be great. it read like she wanted to indoctrinate kids into a pro-copyright view.
@AlienDK,
Why dont we teach kids the law with regards to the environment?
eg:
Why not to wash a car in the middle of the forest?
Or maybe existing laws on how insecticides must be manufactured in a certain way?
There are also quality control laws to make electronics…
as well as laws as to how signboards should be made.
etc
Most of these laws are for specific industries and should not concern you and me and certainly not little kids… just as copyright laws and what the music industry wants or the music industries views.
If this **** was so sure of doing the right thing, she would not have edited her page once the sh*t hit the fan.
It makes me sooo mad to see the industry meddling with our kids, even thought i know its useless, because no matter what they learn at school, one home daddy is going to teach them how to download and watch their favorite cartoons as well as music.
At this age kids should be bothered about the big bad wolf getting his hands on red riding hood, not copyright that effects a record exec wolf from paying his next prostitute dressed in red.
Courts should issue an injunction order for such people to keep a mile away from any place where children are likely to be present.
Well A) I think that’s a little young to teach them ‘law’. The broader aspects of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ is busy being taught at that age. So she isn’t trying to teach that ‘its against the current law,’ She’s preaching the same ole lies about ‘hurting musicians.’ Guilt tactics haven’t been working on educated adults who know better, so now they must try to target the little children with their false numbers and catholic-mother-guilt-trips… children who are not being taught the other side of the discussion… the part about how they make up their ‘damage’ numbers, or the part about musicians making their money from concerts and merc, not cd sales. Frankly, no matter WHICH side you are on, forcing your opinions onto children this young, without any thought to allowing them to hear the other side as well, is offensive.
LMAO, um I think there are more important subjects for kids to learn then this crap!
utter rubbish. there is no way this would be allowed to happen. keep this woman away from children, the values system is learnt at home, the classroom is for education, not indoctrination. even hearing this contemplated is an affront to humanity!
In a few years from now, Schools are going to stop with PE classes to start with Pro-Copyright and The Pirates are The New Devil classes.
She needs to be registered me thinks!
What is the child protection register?
Every local authority has a duty to protect children from significant harm. The child protection register is a confidential list of names of children within your local council who are believed to be at risk of significant harm. This may be physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or neglect.
We can go for emotional abuse for starters.
Indoctrination. Enough said.
If you are going to teach my kids that getting something free from a bunch of money grabbing pig hoars is free, than I think you will fail.
No problem with teaching copyright law to children.
I do hope they include a discussion about the USA “fair use” provision, and why the UK lacks it, along with a breakdown of how much money goes to the musicians from a typical CD sale or download sale.
Also they should include the variations in copyright & licensing terms, such as the GPL, creative commons, etc, and how and when sharing is legal and positively encouraged.
But, I kind of suspect they won’t…
Oh jesus, what next!
You fucking retarded bitch, if this happens, do you really think your kids are going to learn anything. THey’ll come home, and dad or Mom will teach them how to fucking download and all your money will go nowhere, except up your ass and, most likely, kids will be even more likely to break the law than they are now just because of that!
Get your head out of your ass!
That is why parents invented “home schooling”. To send your kids to this places is getting scary by the day.
Public schools are really starting to scare me. they seem to want to be mommy and daddy these days. there sole function in my opinion is something along the lines of reading writing and arithmetic. at least early on until kids develop enough since to realize the are being fed crap id like to see here try her little class in a highschool. Parents should be the ones teaching about morality and right and wrong school really need to stop being such a socialist entidy and start being schools the fact that these classes are even beign allowed reflects a much wider spread problem
Rebel against the system, and encourage your kids to QUESTION EVERYTHING.
Anytime they are ‘lobbying’ somewhere they always try to hide it as if they were doing something illegal. So they must believe themselves that what they are doing is actually wrong or otherwise they wouldn’t try to hide it.
It is easy to understand why a filesharer has to hide something but you would suppose those ‘retarded mind’ people would do their dirty business in the open as it is legal. This means they admit they are doing something morally (hope its a real English word) wrong.
This is actually the same what the tobacco industry did some decades ago with so-called “independent” professors / organizations / advisors telling everyone how good it is for your health.
Hey kids, how would u like to create something that millions of people love, and that 30 music executives will make money for, even though they didn’t do a single thing to help you make that music?
Same shit, different day.
Kids are fickle idiots. They will soak up anything you tell them (I.E. religion, politics, racism, prejudice, homophobia, xenophobia, anti-piracy propaganda). What else is new?
Wow, now this is what I have a problem with. Copyright whores pushing their cynical beliefs on others, it seems big record labels nowadays live by the opposite of the saying “steal from the rich and give to the poor.” That said I’ll have to keep my eye on this. Glad I’m almost fuckin’ done with school. 5 years old is way too young, I mean kids at 5 don’t even know not to eat boogers yet. Their brains will suck up anything and most of the time, they believe what they hear. I believe what Ruth Katz is doing is wrong on so many levels.
The article that made her change her profile…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217929/Anger-music-chiefs-school-anti-piracy-lessons-children-young-five.html
Can’t wait for the great Piracy Riot of 2017. Gonna be epic.
I will never have kids as i’m a homosexual but I still dont like the idea of brainwashing such young children.
Teaching kids your own agenda is how they make suicide bombers. The very young will believe any old shit.
@23, AlienDK;
“Comon guys, the law is the law, try change it if you disagree with it, but don’t complain about people teaching children the law.”
Will she also teach them about the Public Domain and how all copyrighted works end up there eventually when copyright expires? Will she teach them how many many content industries have used public domain stories and characters without ever giving anything back to it? Will she teach them about the content industries’ efforts to kill every major new piece of audio/video technology to come out in the last 30 years?
It’s because of crap like this that kids today don’t even know that such a thing as “public domain” material exists. I actually had one young person tell me point blank that *ALL* music and movies are copyrighted and that it’s never legal to download them without paying for them.
This is exactly the attitude that the content industry wants to foster. Once they get everyone believing that there’s no such thing as the public domain, they can then lobby the various governments to make copyrights permanent.
Well who cares?
Most of the kids will eventually turn to downloading. Simply because downloading is way easier and cheaper.
Just let the big guys spend their money!
They really can’t do anything once a human mind reaches maturity.
The children will start to think, “Piracy is wrong but it’s free. It’s convenient too. As long as i don’t get caught, i can get everything for free”
Amazing. I wish they spend more time on better things, like uh, i don’t know, finding a damn cure for aids?
Indoctrinating children in school seems to be popular this year, what with kids singing about Obama as if he were god, and that video telling kids it’s the government’s job to take care of us and over half our tax dollars go to war funding and that capitalism is evil. And now this. And let’s not forget Europe teaching children in school as young as pre-school about touching themselves and homosexuality.
Companies who tries to turn children into slaves makes me really mad.
The name Ruth Katz makes me laugh, because I think then to katz.cd :þ
once again, this is happening in the United States of Europe
and not the usa
because we pass laws that benefit the internet (but TF won’t post this), so lol europe
[…]
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This is the reason why I don’t, and don’t plan on, having kids. They become too much of a target in school, and in most cases, parents don’t have a say in the matter, unless they band together. Last thing they want is a mob of pissed off moms protesting. Sheesh!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1217929/Anger-music-chiefs-school-anti-piracy-lessons-children-young-five.html
Trying to brainwash our kids now? Just yet another reason, on the Mt. Everest-sized pile of reasons we already have, to boycott these record company dinosaurs. Their end can’t come soon enough.
Next week children you will be learning how to use The Anti-Pirate-Goggles.And one day you will be the all powerfull foot soldiers of our mighty corporation.RUTH GO FUCK A DUCK.Were off to play in the park..
I think she should also tell the kids to never use drugs, have sex, swear, and never talk back to their parents. Yeah, and they’ll stop sampling an unlimited smorgasbord on the Internet…yeah that’ll happen.
The truth is she thinks she is a smart business woman and she believes if she could make money by exploiting the entire school systems children for profit…what’s to stop her? With her blessing and the blessing of music and movie industry association, the government will gladly hand over tax payer dollars to her.
The ironic thing is; she found a legal way to profit from privacy, and she knows how to exploit people and situations for her own benefit.
Yep. Everyone can profit from piracy. Even scum bags like her.
All children in England not Scotland or Wales
Will have to swear that they will be loyal and faithful to the MPAA and their kin?And we are told We must teach our children well not EMI&Co
We should all join the pirate party UK. And Vote for them
Should’nt hammer radishes into it then….
This is amazingly ridiculous. Teaching that “buying is right” at the age when one doesn’t even know how to buy. Seriously, try to remember yourself at the age of five. For me at that age “to buy something” meant “to ask Mommy to bring this for me from the shop”.
Lol @ Ruth Katz. I really, really wonder HOW she is planning to explain such things to children that young.
This is nothing but propaganda to the young disguised as education. We only want you to learn what we want you to know…nothing more. Now students repeat after me “The Corporation is good” “The Corporation will take care of you (for a fee of course)” “The Corporation is always right” “Don’t screw with the Corporation” and so on
Hey teachers leave them kids alone……All in all your your just a….another…brick in the wall
Hey TF why have you red-flagged my IP address? Was that because I thought the movie district 8 was not so good?
Out of all the shit that is posted here you block my IP.Thats not fair boys come on.
As an avid filesharer, I must say that some of the things my pirate brethren are saying here are outright full retarded. When you post something, go for quality not quntity; a bad argument or unproportionally vitriolic response only damages the credibility of your cause.
I’m not certain that this would be allowed. There is an educational law in UK schools that decrees that politics isn’t allowed to be discussed in the classroom unless it is with a politics teacher and in a politics lesson. I would argue that all of this stuff about anti-piracy is very heavily political and so won’t be allowed to be discussed.
I think that kids should at least be told that filesharing is against the law, but…
…Not at that age. Way too young to understand.
…Not by some music industry person. By their normal teacher.
…Not disguised as a music class.
…Nothing disputed or controversial. Stick to the cold, hard, DMCA facts.
…It could raise awareness of filesharing (curious 5th grader goes home and googles “bittorrent”), and do more harm than good.
…Most kids that are filesharers know that it is illegal. But that doesn’t stop them.
Won’t somebody think of the children?!
@59pink floyd
“Hey TF why have you red-flagged my IP address? Was that because I thought the movie district 8 was not so good?
Out of all the shit that is posted here you block my IP.Thats not fair boys come on.”
It might not have been Torrent Freak, and if it was, it could have been an accident. And by the way…..The movie was District 9, not 8. I didn’t like the first half of that movie, but it was pretty decent when the story stopped being like a documentary film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_9
@60anonymous
“As an avid filesharer, I must say that some of the things my pirate brethren are saying here are outright full retarded. When you post something, go for quality not quntity; a bad argument or unproportionally vitriolic response only damages the credibility of your cause.”
This comments are about stating one’s opinion. It doesn’t have to be politically correct. Moron.
I can’t wait for a child to ask, “If I draw a nice picture, and I copy it and give it to my best friend, that’s wrong and he/she will go to jail?”
Yeah, that’s what groups like this are trying to say, isn’t it? Or is it only wrong if it costs them money?
@63
most of them dont care that its “illegal” because they think differently then the pro copyright dinosaurs.
If my kids were involved with this program at all, I would pull them right out of the school. And then teach them about piracy and why it’s great. ;D
VERY old concept. Didn’t work here in the states.
“…Kanner and 60 of his colleagues issued a public letter to the American Psychological Association. Signed by mental health professionals and scholars… urges the APA to declare this practice unethical and recommends the association launch educational campaigns to heighten public awareness about the dangers advertising can pose for children.”
– mediachannel. org
“It is for these reasons that marketing to children should be carefully restricted… [and in some cases] should be banned. Such advertising subsidises the cost of these services at the cost of our children’s values, sense of well-being, health and integrity. Moreover the future of the planet is at stake if we allow advertisers and marketers to turn children into hyper consumers of the future.
– uow. edu. au
Copy, Paste into Google:
donald-duck-used-in-anti-file-sharing-propaganda
“The charges filed against the RIAA are many and amount to such things as counts of negligence, fraud and misrepresentation, racketeering and corruption, abuse of the legal process, malicious prosecution, outrage and intention to inflict emotional distress, computer fraud and abuse, tresspassing, invasion of privacy, libel and slander, deceptive business practices, misuse of copyright laws and finally civil conspiracy…”
– afterdawn. com
“The film’s assessment is effected via the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV… compares the profile of the contemporary profitable business corporation to that of a clinically-diagnosed psychopath.”
– Wikipedia on the film,
‘The Corporation’
@Link
Same here. If I ever have kids I will teach them all about P2P and how to share information.
What’s next..?
Mcdonalds teaching nutrition..?
I think it will have the same effect as those “Stop smoking” lessons.. None at all.
as the saying goes: “Get to the root of all evil”, except that, she got it slightly wrong who the god damn evil actually is.
a f#£king tw4t, thats what she is.
If I was still a child I would go and download a boatload of the stuff kids like and bring it to her class so I can everyone free music in her face..
all in all, its just another brick in the wall
@ 60 Oct 05, 2009 at 01:11 by pink floyd:
@ 77 Oct 05, 2009 at 15:54 by louis friend:
Alas, the FAC’s Board of Directors also include Nick Mason of Pink Floyd.
One of their site’s statements:
“…Our meeting also voted overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files…”
I guess, like Elton John, the industry has swallowed Nick Mason whole.
“Brainwashing” young kids actually works well — whereas it’s almost impossible to make an adult change his mind about something he already believes in.
The antipiracy lobby might be on to something this time…
But hopefully by the time these brainwashed kids grow up, digital copyright laws will be history already…
I don’t think this will have much effect on whether or not kids will use piracy to obtain free music. Think about all of the other things that kids get lectured on, and then think about how many of those things really affect the kid’s choices. Kids will still break the law and go against the norm. I don’t think the effect on kids will be drastic enough to affect future piracy rates.
And besides, I don’t think very many parents will be okay with this new “lobbying” being forced on their kids at school.
I don’t think kids should be taught about creativity through the optics of the industry. I can imagine them growing and thinking that the creative process going through the media industry is mandatory while we know it isn’t true and that there are independent artists that make as much money as their media industry colleagues.
Ms Katz should also teach her students that even though it’s best to buy the original, the current prices are not compatible to their parents’ earnings and that’s why they actually use file sharing to: 1 – filter the content they’ll buy and 2 – check new artists that don’t have the support of that industry.
It’s a somewhat clever tactic because the kids are the ones that will determine the behavior of future adults, however it doesn’t change the fact that money is finite. And the line that stands between educating and brainwashing is quite thin.
In any case, I will keep neutral as I don’t know what is being taught in those classrooms but I do hope Ms Katz also lecture EMI and other labels on how to treat consumers better, evolve and practice sensible prices.
This kind of thing should be illegal. It’s no different to religious groups entering schools, spreading propaganda, and proselytising students. Why can’t children make up their own minds about the MAFIAA? Because they would come to same conclusion as the rest of us: copyrights and patents suppress creativity and innovation, and reinforce the elite’s vice grip on power by introducing state sponsored monopolies!
The copyright MAFIAA are insidious, forever attacking our liberties and promoting censorship. Reject them at all costs.
One minute the pirates are heros in movies, next, pirates are the pest. Dam, make up you mind, movie makers.
5 years old love pirates!
On a more serious note, education is about sharing knowledge. Depriving families from culture, whose we all know, can’t afford regular visit to theater or music purchase, is not very educational.
Now instructing 5 years old about law and regulation is a step too far. Next your kids will sell you to the best offer following the Stasi regime instructed in primary school.
thats funny since katz.cd is pure warez
“Ok, class. Does anyone’s mommy or daddy download music or movies from the internet?”
*three quarters of the children raise their hands*
“Ok, great. Everyone with your hands raised, you’re going to go with these nice men for the rest of the day.”
*the children are escorted out of the classroom for questioning by MAFFIA agents*
@ Oct 05, 2009 at 21:37 by fight_the_tyranny wrote:
“This kind of thing should be illegal.”
“In the United Kingdom, Greece, Denmark, and Belgium advertising to children is restricted and in Quebec, Sweden and Norway advertising to children under the age of 12 is illegal.”
“The European Union also has framework legislation in place, which sets down minimum provisions on advertising to children for its 27 member States.”
…
“Advertising is especially aimed at young people and children and it increasingly reduces young people to consumers… Indeed, commercial interests intent on maximizing the consumption of the immense collection of commodities have colonized more and more of the spaces of our culture. For instance, …through the strategies of licensing, tie-ins and product placements… The prime function of many Hollywood films today is to aid in the selling of the immense collection of commodities… As public funds are drained from the non-commercial cultural sector, art galleries, museums and symphonies… In the same way effected is the education system and advertising is increasingly penetrating schools and universities… It is a central social-scientific question what people can be made to do… For example, from a great number of experimental psychological experiments it can be assumed, that people can be made to do anything they are capable of, when the according social condition can be created.”
– Wikipedia
She goes: This is hot and this is not.
children reply: sureeeeeeee.
if you give a kid a way to get all the free music they want…
no brainwashing is going to stop them.
That was really stupid of her trying to hide the initial text. lol
btw my opinion is that the industry should stay far far away from school and education. no sponsoring, no business, no propaganda, nothing.
Teaching a 5 year old about copyright law…
rightttt how about teaching them Maths and English first…
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