Pro-Copyright Propaganda Enters US Classrooms
Written by Ernesto on May 22, 2009Pro-copyright lobbyists and anti-piracy outfits have a clear idea of what is needed to manipulate the minds of the younger generations. The MPAA most famously handed out a “merit patch in respecting copyright” to LA Boy Scouts, and now the Copyright Alliance has entered US classrooms in an attempt to educate today’s youth about the benefits of copyright.
The Copyright Alliance describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to promoting the value of copyright as a means to make money. The more restrictions, the more money can be made is their credo, and they go to extremes to prove their point.
One of the key research documents listed on their website is a highly critical review of Professor Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free Culture“. According to the review, Lessig is a “hypocritical demagogue” whose book imposes a “quasi-socialist utopianism” while “demonizing” copyright.
Of course, everybody is entitled to their own opinion but with regard to what’s being taught to youngsters in schools, one should at least try to get the facts right. Unfortunately, the Copyright Alliance screws up badly in this respect.
For example, in one of their their featured reports it is claimed that The Pirate Bay is selling pirated movies and music to its users. “Up until 2006, one of the largest global sellers of pirated films and music files was sold by a company based in Sweden – Pirate Bay,” it reads. Despite their blatant lies in their research reports, they have still managed to convince several schools to use their course materials.
“Think First, Copy Later,” is the working title of the pro-copyright curriculum set to be taught in several schools throughout the US. TorrentFreak contacted Aaron Engley, administrator at West Potomac Academy – one of the schools that plans to use the Copyright Alliance’s material.
Engley told TorrentFreak in a comment, “Our school has a communication and arts focus, we engaged in this relationship [with the Copyright Alliance] to assist our students protect their own intellectual property. We were teaching our students how to produce, but not educating them on how to protect what they produce.”
Of course, the Copyright Alliance itself fails to mention that thousands of artists profit from sharing their work for free, and that the lion’s share of copyright profits go to large corporations. But even if we put that aside, kids should be taught to think critically so they can make up their own minds instead of being brainwashed with pro (or anti) copyright propaganda.
Previously: FeedMyTorrents Closes In Face of Legal Threats
Next: BitTorrent Spammers Target The Pirate Bay
192 Responses
This is wrong, to the order of teaching children creationism as a science.
With copyright: most of the profits go to the mafIAA, a small fraction to the artists+creators.
Without copyright: all of the profits go to the artists+creators, none goes to the mafIAA.
Better make sure kids aren’t allowed to learn THAT. (*eyes roll*)
This is wrong on so many levels.
“The Pirate Bay is selling pirated movies and music to its users.”
SELLING?
@4 Yeah – I bought a torrent just yesterday for just £0 – couldn’t figure out how to watch it though – it seemed a little too small to contain a movie :(
Trying to teach kids lies, is one of the worst things you can do. Kids are entitled to facts and opinions and the freedom to make up their own mind of it.
There already are so many reasons to stand up against the big company’s and so many of the foundations they have set up to protect their rights/money. Why do they need to give us new reasons on a daily base, there’s already more than enough to oppose against them.
they should be criminally charged!
Parents call your teachers/principles..
If I had a kid, I would be leading the outrage on the school.. even if it was just me. lol
If i lived there i would fucking charge them for feeding my kid propaganda and lies!
On the flip side, this could work in sharings favour… A little like Pastafarianism.. Anti-copyright groups should be allowed into schools as well to teach the other side of the arguement!
Hey! Teacher! Leave the kids alone!
haha
they’ve got a facebook page – get your comments going people!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Copyright-Alliance/21420609722
Thanks for the heads up.
I live in the US — with kids in school. Trust me, I will check this out.
If their office goes up in smoke tomorrow — uh — well — it wasn’t me, okay?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to maybe teach the kids about something like Creative Commons? That way they can learn the benefits of protecting their work, but also share it to some extent.
this is inraging to see that such brainwashing!
I hope this opens peoples eyes at how the global elite are pushing this pro-copyright to keep there bank accounts ever growing.
this is the kind of corporate brainwashing that will only happen in the us!
@Sarcastic Steve
Teach CC? Sure. Good idea but I expect that will fall to us as parents which, in my view, is entirely appropriate.
My beef is not that it’s the CA doing it, that just makes it worse. My beef is that a biased view of commercialism is taught in school with the clear intent of making the kids just another brick in the wall.
Double FAIL, Copyright Alliance. The Pirate Bay neither sells nor offers pirated movies and music files.
The second of these allegations is a common mistake made by pro-MAFIAA companies and their shills/trolls alike, and demonstrates a clear lack of knowledge on how torrents operate.
Files you download from The Pirate Bay or other sites do not contain any copyrighted content; that only resides on the computers of those uploading and downloading the files.
Cool, now we have someone else to screw with lol…..
good luck with that shit. The kids will be clearly be way more up to speed with technology than the asshats spewing erroneous anti p2p propaganda.
What continues to stump me is how the industry folks can justify spending more cash on asinine litigation tactics then they reportedly loose to piracy.
N.
How about coming up with your own, copyleft materials and then sending them to all these schools? They need to at least see both sides to the story before deciding.
TPB is not selling anything.
THEY INDEX THE TORRENT FILES FOR FREE :D
Grrr, I hate it when ill-informed people label stuff as “socialist”, a proxy descriptor for dope-smoking hippie types who don’t live in the real world. To the contrary, I’m an ardent free-market supporter, who believes that piracy is as close to the economic ideal of perfect competition as possible.
It’s certainly better than this MAFIAA crap that effectively runs the market as a monopolist.
“TPB is not selling anything.
THEY INDEX THE TORRENT FILES FOR FREE :D”
Never, duh..does anyone not no this..do we have to keep repeating it to each other, try educating those that would benefit, and while your at it why not organise something constructive that would help/promote your cause instead of trying to earn bragging rights between each other on this site…but I guess it just reflects the age and ambition of most of the readers here[lack of]
“Up until 2006, one of the largest global sellers of pirated films and music files…”
wow, I never knew the Pirate Bay was the iTunes Store.
whose book imposes a “quasi-socialist utopianism”—-
Those damn quasi-socialist terrorists!
Check out their management team.
They don’t have a single person with real high-end credentials!
The anti-Lessig article makes many basic argumentation fallacies – such as attacking Lessig’s character (instead of the argument) AND relying on fear.
Lessig’s point is not AT ALL that he wants “the entire Internet heavily regulated”. He just wants people to make educated decisions about regulation and copyright (warning that if we don’t have this conversation now, then large corporations and gov’t will make decisions for us, and it might not be to our advantage). And finally, Lessig has said himself that he is not a copyright abolitionist and Free Culture is NOT anti-copyright.
Teaching copyright in classrooms is a great idea, but we should also teach about Lessig, Creative Commons and how to share ideas on the Internet.
You pirating morons have no one to blame for this shit but yourselves. You all piss and moan and cry like little fucking babies because someday you might not be able to freely download the latest american idol album. Tough shit. You don’t own. You have no claim to any copyrighted material on the internet at all.
Grow the fuck up you stupid whiny babies.
I call B.S. But you MPAA plants who read this column, I ask if you really think you can prevent the Boy Scouts from sharing “copyrighted” files with a “merit badge.” For example, I know a Boy Scout who actually made Eagle Scout. He is a big time file sharer and even gave me tips on P2P and how not to get caught!
@13 Sarcastic Steve
Creative Commons is Lawrence Lessig work and check link to criticism they want to teach children about. That creative commons and free culture are bad… :( I can’t believe that this is just ridiculous…
Tough I doubt that seeing RIAA that sues you and sites like deviantart.com newgrouns game and sound portals, Aviary, Hobnox and many many other Creative Commons Free Culture inspired sites…
But still this makes me sick… How low they have fell :( What next? Pro-copyright youth organizations? And some SS nazi like organizations that enforce copyrights with iron hand and send Free Culture believers to concentration camps?
I wonder when USA will have it’s piracy political movement…
Can someone recommend me a good VPN in the US?
you think thats outrageous brainwashing??!!
when i was a lad, PRIESTS were allowed into my primary school, with the intention of converting the kids.
they did.
everybody got money.(confirmation) lmao what a scam
but we’re all in the jeebus books in the vatican now.
the teachers were only too happy, the a**holes.
and its still F*CKin happenin
this is horribly wrong everyone please talk to your kids and tell them the truth so that they will not be deluted into believing this garbage.
This is disgusting, manipulating children now! I just hope they limit these lies to the adolescents, it will prove to be as utterly pointless as abstinence. Claiming the piratebay sells pirated movies, what next? Mininova is a terrorist organization and bittorrent technology is a form of jihad? The absurdity.
OMG!!
Shocking!!!
:[]
Don’t Copy That Floppy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xfqkdh5Js4
So, kids should be taught to break laws as opposed to someday working to change them….
I wouldn’t buy that.
I was watching the news a few weeks ago where the teacher asked the students (grade 3 it looked like), how many of you like downloading stuff and they all raised thier hands. That pro copyright proaganda will just add more to the swarm, they’re recruiting new pirates ;)
@ shadow ,, check this out
http://btguard.com/
I hear a civil lawsuit coming from the piratebay soon
its costing me 3 clicks to get the latest movie, not on lol, but they teach dopr/drugs is bad for you too but that just makes the problem worse, the countrys that allow it dont have a big problem like the countrys that fight against it have a major problem
“With copyright: most of the profits go to the mafIAA, a small fraction to the artists+creators.
Without copyright: all of the profits go to the artists+creators, none goes to the mafIAA.”
—————-
and by “all of the profits” you mean a few coins and pocket lint that will be thrown their way via paypal charity? coins and pocket lint that most likely won’t amount to what they were being paid under the old regime?
no thanks.
if this report is true then TPB can sue the Copyright Alliance and all the schools involved in a US court for defamation
That’s good.
But, education about the evils of infringement must start even earlier.
I propose this new motto for schools to use on students in the early grades (kindergarten too):
SHARING IS UNCARING
Thanks Cujothemadog! =D
As a 17 year old Junior in High School, I promise you guys if they try to teach us this shit, I’ll let everyone know the REAL facts about copyright… Viva la revolution! :D
If the CA went to my old high school and gave a presentation about copyright, I would head down there and give my own presentation.
If absolutely nothing, kids deserve to be able to make their own choices. This involves knowing both sides of an issue.
God this country is such a fucking mess.
Every single day I learn one new fucked up thing going on in it.
From corrupt politicians, businesses, poor leadership, dumbasses in congress, MPAA, People Driving too slowly, Westboro Baptist Church, those retarded atheists who ironically want to push their atheism on everyone else.
Too bad TPB can’t sure the organization for Defamation of Character/Slander.
er….sue. *sigh*
“Up until 2006, one of the largest global sellers of pirated films and music files was sold by a company based in Sweden – Pirate Bay”
The pro-copyright group only seems to sink further and further when it tries to “educate” users against “copyright infringement”.
Seriously, PB selling movies???
Round #2 for Captain Copyright lol..
@45 you are to old.. They don’t want to waste their time and resources.. Were talking grades 1-4 in these cases.. Young kids susceptible to this type of propaganda.. Most parents wont even bat an eye in this case..
‘Think first, copy later’?
*thinks*
…
*fires up uTorrent*
I dont think it would be a great help coz schoolchildren are also taught about drugs,Non Violence.Has the war ended? Has the drug menace ended?I think MPAA is fighting its last battle of survivor and will do any stupid things to met its need.When a candle light is about to end,its flame grows brighter for a few secong only to sleep in darkness forever.
retardation on its highest level. I think that group is a sad idea and it is doomed to fail its “mission”, of being active in the pro-copyright movement.
Brainwashing kids by teaching them LIES!
This is outrageous.
Sharing is caring (altered zune commercial)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orEhUEcxHeY
“MPAA is fighting its last battle and will do any stupid thing to met its need.When a candle light is about to end,its flame grows brighter for a few seconds only to sleep in darkness forever”. Exactly
Interestingly, the Facebook Copyright Alliance page seems to have comments turned off…. In the words of H. L. Mencken, it seems freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.
I do hope that some of you write a book, produce some music, design a game,create some art or direct a movie and have someone pirate your work. We all complain about ethics in the banking world and on Wall Street but complain when ethics enter the classroom. So who’s teaching ethics to you pirate freaks.
This is no more “propaganda” than sex ed is. Technically, The pirate bay don’t sell copyrighted material (although it does make a lot of money from advertising), but their underlying goal is good. The digital information age has become synonymous with piracy and all they are trying to do is educate kids.
In a way, piracy is just like drugs (aside from the fact that drugs only hardm yourself.) One bas mistake can really screw up your life. Think about it, it’s better that the kids know then then later on getting in trouble.
Pirates always insist on making the anti piracy crowd look all evil. Lock your doors, folks! They’re a ‘telling us that stealing be none too good!
You do realize you’re talking bullshit, right? Every kid grows up with lies, mostly told by their parents.
So GTFO with your shit.
What bullshit, Edwin? That people don’t have the right to take steal things just because they can? That people deserve to be paid for their work? That piratng everything in sight can land you in some serious legal trouble?
WTF?
At least in Finland that would be illegal…
So, the cancer spreads.. Time to educate our little brothers and sisters about the evil of corporations I presume?
wa. ya guys surprised..
its not like its the only propaganda being tought to your kids….
seriously
@57
0.2/10
Cool story bro
jesus people. there is nothing wrong with copyright, people have a right to protect their work and to offer it how they please, whether for a charge or for free. how would you like it if you were to produce something, anything, that you were hoping to profit from, and then someone copies it and shares it with others, reducing the profit you can make?
i agree that the riaa, mpaa, and similar organizations do no good, especially for artists, and that artists should find an alternate means of distributing their art. but seriously, all this anti-copyright bullshit is exactly that: bullshit.
@trollstyles
“What bullshit, Edwin? That people don’t have the right to take steal things ”
ROFL.
“What bullshit?”, you ask, and then immediately follow it up by suggesting that filesharing is stealing.
Classic comedy, folks. Classic comedy.
Now in case you missed the hint, let me spell it out for your rat-sized little brain. Stealing is to take a sandwhich(for the sake of example) away from you. Filesharing is to conjur up a perfect duplicate of your sandwhich so that we both have one, and I can eat mine while leaving yours totally unscathed. Which means you’d look like a total idiot if you suddenly jumped up and accused me of stealing it.
You know, the way you look like an idiot right now.
But I’m sure you’d prefer keep living in your fantasy world where *you* are right and the *English language* is wrong, rather than come to terms with reality.
Oh well. The good news is there’s a lot of job opportunities for delusional idiots. Have you considered talk radio?
Hitler spread his lies to kids and looked what happened there!! years of war and millions of deaths before the truth was realised.
agree with #42 but would have thought that a libel/slander suit would have been the course of action to take rather than a deformation suit.
if pro-copyright is being ‘taught’ so should anti-copyright. how can anyone make an informed decision, without first being properly informed, especially when the ‘clients’ are so young and easily influenced?
“I do hope that some of you write a book, produce some music, design a game,create some art or direct a movie and have someone pirate your work.”
If I did make music/games/arts/books/movies I’d want as many people to see it as possible. And then maybe those people who enjoy it a lot will donate a suitable amount.
@MAFIAA apologist #2
“how would you like it if you were to produce something, anything, that you were hoping to profit from, and then someone copies it and shares it with others, reducing the profit you can make?”
What if I make things solely because I like to make things, and not because I hope to profit from them?
What if I’m not a money grubbing whore?
I’ve got no sympathy for the crybabies who whine about piracy cutting in to their profit margins and how hard it is to sell their work. If you create things for the sake of creating things, it doesn’t matter if you turn a profit or not. It isn’t the issue. If you create things because you intend to cash in on them, then I goddamn spit on you and hope you end up living in a cardboard box.
@MAFIAA apologist #2
“all this anti-copyright bullshit is exactly that: bullshit.”
If copyright dissapeared tomorrow, it wouldn’t stop artists from getting paid, as evident by the fact that artists still make a living in the countries where filesharing is legal for personal use(Spain, Canada… I know I’m missing a few others. Germany?). So who’s the one talking bullshit, kid?
question:
can you be pro-copyright, and also non-profit?
http://www.copyrightalliance.org//content.php?id=44
‘Nuff said
(C) = 21st century svastika
Apparently the Copyright Alliance and it’s supporters believe spreading lies IS ethical. If they are lying about TPB, what else are they lying about?
what else are they lying about?—
Everything, that’s their business model.
same thing happned when they told them “muslim is a terrorist”
same tactic but different subject
I’m going to inform my sons scout troop that if they hand out this bullshit, I will pull him from that troop……
More propaganda: http://tinyurl.com/obaana
“Think first, copy later”
Okay!
I’ve thought for a while I think it’s time to copy now.
Also, what the hell. Teaching kids to “Protect” what they create?!
What is the purpose of creating it then? These kids will copyprotect everything they create when growing up not knowing what damage it may cause…
It’s like me going around telling kids they can get AIDS by watching porn with AIDS infected artists…
What a sad world this became…
@70 yeah, nicely done with the invoking of Godwin’s law.
“I’ve been through it twice in the last two years now! But the tremendous enthusiasm we’re receiving from educators across the country, who it turns out have been actively seeking resources like this, makes the labor worth it.”
source: http://blog.copyrightalliance.org/2009/05/copyright-alliance-education-foundation-launched/
As a professional, working photographer of over 22 years I have to take issue with nearly every comment on here. What seems to be missing is a larger understanding of copyright law, not just how it relates to downloading torrents. There are many individuals (not just “the corporations”) who earn a living with their copyright protected work. Thanks to the attitudes expressed on here, I have to engage in legal battles on a monthly basis in order to preserve my livelihood these days. Maybe when most of you move out of your parent’s basement and have to earn a living for yourselves (not just make “something I can share with the world”) you’ll have a new appreciation for how the law works.
They can try all they want, kids are going to download music and movies for free. Just like “don’t copy that floppy” didn’t work, this won’t either.
This is nothing more than corporate propaganda! It does not have a place in our schools. This is just plain disgusting. It’s actions like this that prove to me it’s not governments that run our countries but greedy corporations that have no morals. Corporations have corrupted laws and legal systems to their own greedy ways.
Well, and all this is happening in the Obama administration… then I assume that he agreed with all this shit.
Obama, another corporate whore.
The discussions about Pirate bay and copyright law baffle me. I can’t believe how many people are anti-copyright. When you create something, no matter what it is, you need to protect it from big business and the idiot down the street. The only conclusion I can reach is that people involved in these discussions have never created anything on their own, are still living with their parents and don’t really get how the world works. While I don’t agree with this groups tactics, I believe the basics of copyright should be taught in schools. Firstly so kids understand that if they write a story, take a photograph, make a video, that it and the ideas behind it belond to them and no one, especially big business can use it for free. How would you feel if you created a youtube video, then some big corporation used it in an ad campaign, and didn’t pay you for it? They would profit from your work. Don’t tell me how great it would be because you would be famous. BS! Secondly, if I hear one more story about some kid downloading 5,000 songs illegally, then both the kid and parents crying stupidy, “I didn’t know it was illegal to download music for free.”?!, I’m going to puke.
Creativeness creates creativity
Copyright CREATES, poverty, evil, war greed Adolf hitter’s starling (insert favourite dictator here).
HELL TO THE HATERS. AND THE COPYRIGHT ALLIANCE
Lets call all artists to change copyright so no artist can sell, transfer, lend or rent his rights to anyone else an see how corporations will be happy with it LoL
Dear pro copyright people coming here bashing on us torrent users:
1. You work you get payed, that’s how the world works
2. My neighbour never saw a penny from people taking pictures of his buildings (he’s an architect) nor he saw a penny from people using his buildings…
3. Why do you mention TPB so often and bash about them, innocent people got prosecued, sue us 20 million filesharers, not them…
4. ???
5. When I see you live performing, I’ll gladly pay…
Enjoy…
hmmm- they also tell kids that illegal drugs will kill them, but when they get older they make their own decisions.
@jakeZ:
No, no, no, what you have to do is compete and prove yourself to be worth it.
Protectionism only leads to pain.
to post #86 – Copyright law allows the holder to control the usage of the work in question. If an artist gives away their rights to a corporation (as is typical with major label recording artists), that’s their choice. But why do copyrighted protected artists working on their own need to change the law to refuse “corporations” usage of their work?
The level of ignorance in some of these comments only proves that we DO need to teach copyright law in the schools – and some common sense!!
I can’t believe fucking tax dollars for public schools go to this. I pay my public school taxes so that kids can get a fucking education, not this bullshit. I can’t believe any school would allow this.
@80 – jakeZ: It is one thing when somebody SELLS your work and makes a profit off of your livelihood. Likewise, it is also a different scenario if someone takes YOUR work and tries to take credit for it. Both of these actions are just outright wrong both legally and ethically no matter how you look at it.
However, you say you’re a photographer and you’ve had many legal battles regarding copyright. Do these battle involve the people (your customers) who only want to share the photos they have purchased from you (assuming that’s what you do – take photos for payment) with friends, relatives, etc? Would you really want to sue someone just because they want more people to see your fine work? Or are you the type of person that wants compensation from every single person that so much as looks at your work?
If the above sounds wrong to you, then let me tell you that THIS is what is happening with the current RIAA situation (and why so many of us HATE them and any other similar companies). These large corporations want full compensation before you gain access to any sort of art (or rather music in this example) whatsoever and they want to DICTATE how it gets distributed using their own terms (which by now are highly outdated since they were formed before the internet was as widely used as it is now). Sometimes they do this even against the artists’ will (why do you think some artists have banded together to stop the “three strikes law” in certain countries or complain that they were not consulted before the RIAA engages in a law suit on their behalf or even just do things their own way using bittorrent thereby bypassing the RIAA altogether).
Also, how would you like it if some major corporation decided that they want an extra fee paid to them from someone who is promoting your photos and then again from every person that looks at them? How does that sound? Stupid? Well that is the current situation in certain European countries (such as Finland) with music. The radio stations need a license to play the music and you need an additional license if you want to listen to it (unless of course you do it out of the earshot of anybody outside). This has gotten out of hand and the sooner these large distributors go, the better it’ll be for consumers and artists alike.
Just had an amateur recording done of the band I am in… guess what – its heading straight to pirate bay, its not for sale and I will also post some tracks on youtube! (Will be to a slideshow though since it is audio only) – Admittedly, it is not to everyones taste as it is Brass band music, but to spread our name in the banding world, what better way than with a torrent?
See – as a REAL musician, I care more about letting people ENJOY my music – I have played in bands for over 15 years and never demanded money for it once!
In a plain field where everyone have the same thing to offer only the ones that can innovate and put something out faster then others will succeed this drives innovation and benefits not only society but the guy who is constantly exercising his brain matter to be on the game this is real capitalism not this communist BS copyright mascarading as economic sound decision.
” to post #86 – Copyright law allows the holder to control the usage of the work in question. If an artist gives away their rights to a corporation (as is typical with major label recording artists), that’s their choice. But why do copyrighted protected artists working on their own need to change the law to refuse “corporations” usage of their work?
The level of ignorance in some of these comments only proves that we DO need to teach copyright law in the schools – and some common sense!!
”
And why not change it then what harm could it done to the ones who don’t want to sign with a corporation and be relieved of their rights?
Your ignorance baffles me.
to post #87 -
“1. You work you get payed [sic], that’s how the world works”
This may be true if you flip burgers at McDonald’s, but it’s not that simple if you produce intellectual property for a living.
“2. My neighbour never saw a penny from people taking pictures of his buildings (he’s an architect) nor he saw a penny from people using his buildings…”
True, I don’t get pennies every time someone sees one of my photos in a magazine, newspaper, website, etc. But I do get paid by the publication who uses those photos, just like your architect friend was paid by a developer for designing that building. The difference is I licensed my photos for usage. Your architect friend does not work the same way. But if someone could steal and work off with that building for their own purposes, the owner of that building might want some protection – - do you think??
@87
5. When I see you live performing, I’ll gladly pay…
No you wouldn’t. You would try to sneak in after your parents drop you off.
Things I would like changed in copyright:
- 5 years of protection. No one else get paid after death why artists have too?
- Copyright holders should not have the rights to sell, lend, rent or transfer their rights this protect artists for being deceived and guarantees that any interests that arrive will include the artist in the centers of discussions.
- Copyright holders should be confined to the commercial realm and not be alowed near the public realm those rights to share, copy and make whatever one wants with what one paid for should be enforced.
- Copyright holders should not gain from second commercial interests. Like subtitles, singing competitions and the like copyright holders should not be allowed to profit from it, they didn’t have the vision to make a business around it why should they profit from it even if it uses copyrighted material, if they make a market directly they should profit from it and be allowed exploration of that venue otherwise they should not even if it is parasitical.
Oh! and by second commerce I include TV and Radio stations, karaoke bars and th elike LoL
5 years protection and I guarantee people will start innovating cause there is no more powerful need then the one to eat.
@96
- 5 years of protection. No one else get paid after death why artists have too?
They have invested a lot of time and money creating something. Music movie, book, etc. They have families that need to be taken care of. When you’re an artist there are no pension plans.
That’s like saying you built a house on a piece of property. You spent money and time building it. Ooops your dead. Nope, you can’t will it to your family. The state now owns it. Ridiculas.
Almost forgot end the the derivative works rights, not even in patents that is valid why should a small group hold all others group hostage to this crap.
Copyright holders today are holding back innovation and companies in other fields back, why should electronic companies pay them anything? Why should they be compensated for their lazy attitudes?
Why should microsoft, intel, google, TV and Radio stations and others have to put up with this crap when they don’t need to?
“They have invested a lot of time and money creating something. Music movie, book, etc. They have families that need to be taken care of. When you’re an artist there are no pension plans.
That’s like saying you built a house on a piece of property. You spent money and time building it. Ooops your dead. Nope, you can’t will it to your family. The state now owns it. Ridiculas.”
So what I invest a lot of time in my work too and I plan like everybody else if the guy don’t have the better judgment to plan for the future he or she deserves all the pain the he or she gets. And if he or she cannot make enough find other line of work that does I’m not paying for a lazy bastard pension nor of his family I have my to think about already
There seems to be an idea here that only corporations can copyright work. Copyrighting can be done by anyone who creates intellectual property and wants to protect how it’s used.
Defending copyright law is not a defense of how the music/film industry operates these days.
Every legal battle I’ve won over infringement of my work has been against an entity larger than myself. In other words copyright law can protect the little guy against the big guy. Which is just another reason why the law should be taught in schools.
@102
I think you’re the only person here who gets it. All of my comments are the artists or creators point of view. The little guy.
Why should the people care?
Little or big artists everywhere are biting the hand that feeds them.
That is why people are anxious to see copyright or ended or changed so those who are biting them stop.
And by the way the RIAA passing a law in the U.S. the will force all radio stations to pay even if they play independent songs all day long just get more people angry more and more groups are just getting fed up with all these copyright nonsense.
so there’s a “copyright alliance”? why the hell does there need to be such an alliance? the point of copyright is to ensure that if any type of media is copied, that it won’t be sold for profit, and if it is, then the person selling it for profit will be prosecuted. but then again, how in the whole wide freaking world is the riaa really going to know who is TRULY profiting from copied media and who is just downloading media via bittorrent? the truth is that they don’t know, and there’s NO way they can know, and that’s what truly pisses them off. so there the riaa is, trying to chase an invisible dog around, claiming the dog is there, and they know how to catch it. if this sounds incredibly stupid to anyone that reads this, then that’s because it is. i definitely think this whole “copyright infringement” stuff is nothing more than the riaa being pissed off about people not giving them the money they think is “rightfully” theirs for the simple fact that that’s how things have always been done, and all the while the riaa STILL doesn’t get that things have changed DRASTICALLY with the advent of not only the internet, but trackerless filesharing.
@jakeZ:
No, you don’t get it. This article is not about the rights or wrongs of copyright laws and/or the rights or wrongs of teaching them in schools. It’s about teaching a one-sided story argumented with lies. Do they mention GPL and Creative Commons? Those are licenses too.
Search results
No results matched your search for “gpl”.
How about using this model to teach maths? What kind of school would that be?
yes, the LAW should be taught – not the propagandist bullshit. Luckily my kids are being raised to question things – my five year old told me last week that I’m not the boss of her anymore. She had a well-reasoned argument and everything. I can’t wait until school tries to teach her some crazy BS like this…she’ll be ready.
@jakeZ
“Defending copyright law is not a defense of how the music/film industry operates these days.”
Oh, yes it is, you disingenuous little liar.
Copyright law has been rewritten by the music and film industries for the sole purpose of bestowing upon themselves ludicrous sums of wealth, power, and authority.
But as long as the “little guy” can occasionally use copyright law to defend their work from getting poached by large corporations, then it’s perfectly okay for large corporations to use copyright law to lock down the internet, lock down our own personal computers(oh hello, Sony BMG rootkit!) and throw kids in prison for downloading music, right?
Because copyright law can do an ounce of good, that justifies the ton of harm that it causes. So let’s go easy on copyright law, everybody!
Umm, no. I don’t think so.
What’s especially hilarious is that your concerns have nothing whatsoever to even do with filesharing, this article, or the Copyright Alliance.
Nobody’s suggesting that it’s okay for somebody to comercially use your work without your consent. Nobody’s suggesting that if copyright gets abolished there shouldn’t be new laws drafted that specifically protect against that. Nobody even brought up the subject until you ran in waving your arms and raving that copyright law is actually a good thing because it enables you to do something that has nothing to do with anything being discussed.
Yet the biggest of irony of all is that you’re pretending to look at things from artists’ point of view, when artists are the ones that copyright law is used to abuse the second most(the average joe being be the first most).
Your comments are a joke. But I like jokes, so I have to thank you for entertaining me :D
Lets get started with the atrocities, add what horrors the organizations that I didn’t cover provide below.
From the article & http://www.copyrightalliance.org.
“Members of the Copyright Alliance include: American Federation of Television & Radio Artists; American Intellectual Property Law Association; American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; American Society of Media Photographers; Association of American Publishers; Association of Independent Music Publishers; AT&T; Broadcast Music, Inc.; Business Software Alliance; CBS Corporation; Church Music Publishers Association; Directors Guild of America; Entertainment Software Association; Graphic Artists Guild; Langley Productions; Magazine Publishers of America; Microsoft; Motion Picture Association of America; National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR); National Association of Broadcasters; National Collegiate Athletic Association; National Football League; National Music Publishers’ Association; National Basketball Association Properties, Inc.; NBC Universal; Newspaper Association of America; News Corporation; Picture Archive Council of America; PPL and VPL; Production Music Association; Professional Photographers of America; Professional School Photographers Association; Recording Industry Association of America; Reed Elsevier; SESAC; Software & Information Industry Association; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Time Warner; Universal Music Group; Viacom; Vin Di Bona Productions; The Walt Disney Company; Writers Guild of America, West.”
The Walt Disney Company: For the majority of the 20th century and perhaps 21st century extended copyright to prevent the drawing of mice a certain style.
RIAA: Extorts cash knowing its almost impossible to defend yourself against its claims, whether true or not.
National Football League: Doesn’t want you recording the game to show your friends in public, and god forbid making your own memorabilia.
Microsoft: Still claims that a computer can not be sold without windows, since its going to go to a pirate(thank goodness dell and other companies are finally offering a limited amount of computers with alternatives like linux, ect..)
MPAA: Claims that sharing movies keeps movie tickets from selling, when faced with a glaring contradiction(X-Men Origins: Wolverine), claims that sharing movies funds drugs and terrorists.
@ jackhug:
Are you saving for retirement, like NORMAL people?
Or are instead expecting the SOCIETY to pay your retirement by supporting indefinite copyright extensions?
Stealing from public domain is stealing from everyone. This is how the law works now.
“Think First, Copy Later”
So they ARE saying I should copy stuff! As long as I think first.. About what? Can be anything I recon? I’ll think of chocolate-flavoured icecream the next time I’m downloading a movie. Thanks CA!
well, this propaganda is not going to work and its going to waste more money from the industry, and they’ll blame it on more file sharing or whatever their briving spirit decides. As soon as you get to high school or college everyone’s talking about filesharing. Sort of how everyone also talks about sex and that grabs curiosity and sooner or later you’re going to try it. Regarding some of what was said for paying artists after death.. its ridiculous. There’s really NOTHING you can do for dead friends or relatives–they’re already dead. Plus, even if your family was still living after you had perished you produce so little by the industry side that they of course went on to find other jobs. In any case… I don’t want any more complaints from the industry. If this propaganda doesn’t work then maybe this new model that’s already in progress will:
http://tinyurl.com/r557pj
Hello Children…
(hello mr)
Today were going to learn you and all your friends that all them good movies games tv shows and expensive programs online can be obtained for free on websites on the internet called the pirate bay..
In this Reccession this will help your mommy and daddy out so you can enjoy all the entertainment free of charge while mommy and daddy can use that money they was going to spend on your entertainment on important things like food and clothing..
now children downloading this stuff offline is not only free but really easy to do just go to google and put in piratebay then go back to google put in utorrent download this now when you click that .torrent file it will magically get you the new music album or film.
but this is totally illegal and against copyright!
(sir.. whats illegal mean and copyright? is it a new kind of school book were going to be using?
school kids… rubs hands together interesting they snigger to themselves wait till i speak to my friends at afternoon lunch break muwahaha
idiots.. pure stupidity at its best
it’s like free total free advertising to people who might not even download stuff online well now they just been taught how too lol
I think this’ll backfire on the RIAA/MPAA because people will be like, “Cool, I can get stuff for free on the internet!”
another reason why america sucks.
claiming to be a democratic country when laws are changed by special interest groups and greed backed lobbyist who bribe lawmakers with boxseat games and other gifts.
if the founding fathers of america were born today they’d soon be starting another revolution not to be free of tyranny, but to free of a greed driven government.
@118, I’m not sure about ALL the founding fathers, but I’m fairly certain people like Thomas Jefferson are facepalming America from beyond the grave right now.
They have to teach the younger generation that this is bad because piracy is only going to get worst with the younger generation since they are more knowledgeable with technology
wow this is really wrong
brainwashing the young just to
make sure they can get
a profit from them
later on in life
I find this amusing in the way that watching someone trip down the stairs is funny.
Watching anti p2p pro copyright groups try and ultimately fail as brainwashing the masses into fighting for their cause is hilarious. Not because of what they are doing, but because we all know that a hell of a lot of people don’t give a crap and will continue. And these people are the next generation of artists and they are not going to be giving them a cut.
The more they try the more they fail… unless people in America really are that stupid… :/
so many self-entitled socialists here, so many parasites who think everyone owes them free entertainment…
sad.
Is that really happening?! F*ck copyright bullsh*t because it’s all about the money!
@107 – jakeZ … no your view is not the artists PoV… and saying I would sneak into a live show bla bla is ridiculous, I dropped over 150$ to get me and my loved one U2 tickets…and I’m happy to pay such a price, hear them live, see them working actually… I will probablly be the happyies “kid who’s parents dropped him off and he sneaked into the concert” you’ve ever seen…
If you are interested in what copy rights currently exist in the United States refer to this helpful website: http://www.copyrightsearch.org.
Copying is not stealing. Those greedy fuckers ruin all life because of their own stupidity and this backwards economic model based on artificial limitations (which also wastes huge amounts of oil for all that plastic crap in stores) and draconian laws. This is moronic par excellence. It ruins the earth, it ruins freedom, fun and creativity, it ruins knowledge, it ruins the human desire to share, it is sick and I’m tired of this stupid topic the very first day it began.
Only already brainwashed psychopaths buy into this copyright crap.
Wow….. at my high school, a magnet school, teachers used to complain about copyright and how much it hurt the classroom and learning. I can’t imagine what kind of teachers would preach it.
I took a philosophy of art class and we talked about copyrights a pretty good bit. Especially how it has killed the music industry and that we’re even losing Disney material to copyright law. Disney! The really old Mickey Mouse films are just rotting in libraries and they can’t get the funding to pay the royalties to make COPIES to PRESERVE the material. Way messed up.
Copyright has gone from giving credit to the original author/artists to a stranglehold on all the arts and the written word.
I want my merit patch in respecting copyright, dammit.
@58 – “I do hope that some of you write a book, produce some music, design a game,create some art or direct a movie and have someone pirate your work.”
Got news for ya, troll. WE ALREADY HAVE. For years we’ve been releasing our music, games, art, films, software, and other creative works under all kinds of licenses, through all kinds of venues, via all kinds of people & companies. Sometimes we’re pleased with the outcome, sometimes not. Sometimes we get paid, sometimes we don’t (sometimes by design! Can you believe it?). Sometimes our work is popular, sometimes it’s not (sometimes we don’t care!). Sometimes we make something really good, sometimes it’s crap. Sometimes people pirate it, sometimes they don’t. Even those of us who’ve produced nothing but bombs are still just as creative as ever; we’re producing, still building on established trends in art, sometimes being accused of stealing and ripping off, other times being hailed as innovators. Strange as it may sound to you, we don’t expect each and every creative act to automatically generate a neverending stream of income for ourselves, our families, or for the greedy lowlives like yourselves who run companies built on exploiting our work. And artists who work for hire, including those I’ve contracted with myself, are deprived of nothing because they’re paid just once. Piracy doesn’t affect them one bit, except to the extent they’re hired by people who produce content that no one wants to pay for; if that’s the case for them, they’ll soon realize they were never ‘artists’ but people who were extremely fortunate to have ever had a career in the business in the first place. If your doomsday predictions come true, it won’t be artists who have to find ‘real jobs’ (and got more news for ya…most of ‘em weren’t living solely off their art even before file sharing came along), rather it’ll be all of you hangers-on with dollar signs in your eyeballs. Good riddance!
Back to the topic at hand, though: where did they get the money to produce and distribute this copyright propaganda in the classroom?
@132
From lawsuits and all the people they blackmailed.
“non-profit, non-partisan educational organization”
Anyone believe that bullshit? This is what we call propaganda.
@130
Yep when Mickey’s copyright started to go dead in 1998 and their oldest film where about to enter the public domain. Disney lobbied Congress and got the copyright laws changed, because they said they hadn’t been able to recoup their investment. So they tacked on another 20 years.
How much you want to bet in 2019 they’ll cry poor again and get another extension.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
I especially liked Mary Bono’s quote in the “Support” section.
utorrent stats:
total downloaded:955GB
running time:7000hrs
torrents added:2600
MONEY FOR THE MAFIAA= FUCK ALL!
MONEY FOR THE ARTISTS=PLENTY!
CAN I SLEEP AT NITE?,JUST FINE THANKS;)
Here’s an idea.
Teach the students about copyright and then about copyleft.
Explain that copyrighted material is something you have to pay for, and while that isn’t a bad thing, some of their money doesn’t go to the person who made it.
Then explain copyleft and say that everything copyleft is not only free but the authors are happy for you to use it in any way you want. They don’t want your money (though it is appreciated), they just want to help you.
Given the choice, as a student, who would you support?
@ 99 May 23, 2009 at 15:38 by jackhug
Then maybe you should start flipping burgers if you want to survive.
Also since you are a professional photographer and are worried about bittorrent affecting your lively-hood, then that must mean you produce pornographic photography. Elsewise bitorrent isn’t endangering your lively-hood as 3 extra people a month looking at a picture wouldn’t be noticed financially. You do realize that kiddie porn is illegal don’t you? And you really don’t believe that your skills are what makes those girls look good do you?
You claim, ‘But I do get paid by the publication who uses those photos’, then you were paid, what’s your complaint against bittorrent? Filesharers aren’t publishing copies of your work. It seems you do not comprehend copyright law, thus you are arguing that something you do not understand is good.
Copyright laws do need to be changed to protect artists from large corporations. I suggest you brush up on copyright law and the corporate theft of the public domain.
the MAFIAA no longer control the means of distribution. less profit for distributors = more profits for artists
The least Christian guys I know went to Catholic schools. Children tend to rebel against everything, particularly what teachers tell them.
I am a teacher.
I resent this nonsense being presented in the classroom.
Have they ever heard of FAIR USE?
Most materials, books, pages from books, dvds, cds, movies, tv shows etc etc etc can be used in the classroom in an educational setting. That is what education is all about.
No, we cant charge admission or sell this stuff. We cant make dozens of copies or give it away. I wonder if they teach any of that to the kids.
btw I also own copyrighted material myself but I HATE THE COPYRIGHT LAWS THAT STRANGLE THE FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, CREATIVITY AND EXPRESSION
I can breathe now …..
@5 I lol’d
Music, movie, books and other forms of art are not products the artists are the real product and had been like this for millenia.
Those legal crutches harm society, economy, innovation, competition and my dog(if I had one).
To me i a mixed feeling about this. To SOME degree copyright is fine. However, it has for the past DECADES been abused and become unethical. Why should so many MPAA/RIAA companies just embezzle themselves in hordes of profits while the people that create it get to skim the surface (most are ‘happy’ with that pay too)… something isn’t right.
Its wrong that PEOPLE very rarely get to control what happens with their work, most are subject to the machine.
To me, you can’t put a ‘good’ price on something that’s non-existent (hence, IP). Should we really pay 500 bucks for vista? or 50 for some movie. No. I would like to believe that someday, alot of IP based companies will ’survive’ because they surely have a reputable and well performing product. Unlike Microsoft, crappy movies, and shitty music artists.
There is the flip side.
There MUST be a line where “without funding, this project will suffer.” Even things like Mozilla’s Firefox needs money to run its Servers. Even the license tries to protect people so they don’t ever have to Pay for it. The point is alot of mozilla’s work is paid for with some sponsor ship or donations. I’d like to see if we could ever have such a concept with todays movies… god knows we need good, talented, people that WANT to make good music… not just get paid for it.
and to end my rant, Not all movies, music and what ever that are downloaded are illegal… a majority of my downloads are either backups or an attempt to recover my data…
even a majority of my movies i download i’ve paid these jack nutz SOMETHING. They need to get used to the fact that they can’t get away with charging people for a movie ticket, a 50 dollar disc and an ad filled TV premire.
I was reading old news about P2P and the sense I got was that in 2001(back when napster was sued to oblivion) the industry panic and it had a lot of vocal politicians in the american congress trying to pass absurd laws like compelling the electronic industry to take on more responsibilities, criminalizing any instance suspicious of infringement, adoption of new rules that pale in comparison of todays proposals solely based on one industry word that it was illegal and it would mean the end of civilization as we know it, well 9 years latter that same industry is still profiting from it trying to make more money from things that don’t even where possible before with the aid of technology (DRM is not about protection is about the creation of new forms of consumption and maximizing profits that is why they didn’t give up yet).
People in the industry knows that the internet is more like a TV or radio station and it would not harm them what they don’t want is to loose control of distribution channels and all their means of making MORE money out of it.
Recently the RIAA confirmed that their numbers are based on fiction, the MPAA acknowledge in 2006 that what they wanted was not protection but control how people consumed what they bought when an executive told everyone who would hear it that they wouldn’t let Steve Jobs have films because his DRM were to soft and permissive, can you imagine a DRM that did permit only 3 friends to see any movie being soft? What they deed want on those day and I suspect even today is make people buy insted of lending a DVD to your friends(that is illegal today according to the industry).
Back when the RIAA sued Grokster their own lawyers said it was ok to rip CDs and put on your iPod a couple off year latter not even ripping is allowed for that purpose is allowed and DRM supplant Fair Use.
Those historical facts won’t be teatched in school I presume.
By the way in the triennial hearings for the DMCA the RIAA/MPAA argue that people can’t rip anything and that if this was the case people already have replacements affordable enough LoL
Translation: Even if it breaks you can buy again for just $49.99(It’s not 50 bucks who said that?) if it is a DVD if it’s a Bluray it’s just $99.99.
But that is in the U.S. copyright laws don’t protect Fair Use on a global scale and governments everywhere can decide if they should or not protect those pesky little rights for the people. The U.k. have no fair use at all there are no exceptions for copyright well I guess it should not be that surprising since they were the ones that invented copyrights in the first place LoL
Oops! almost forgot in the hearings for the DMCA also the MAFIAA said that based on sales people don’t care about copyright protections meaning that even with copyright protections in place it didn’t turn off people from buying it and therefore people didn’t care well if that is true so the internet is no problem at all and sharing is less because people still buy and they still see market growth no?
#11 you now owe Capital Records 10,000 for making a reference to one of their songs in a public forum. :p
After this you will receive your Respecting Copytight Merit Badge.
I don’t understand where you people get the idea that no copyright leads to the artists getting all the profits.
Pirated copies of anything that are then given away for free means the artist gets absolutley *NO* profit.
Without a copyright to even attempt to protect the rights of the artist, there’s no hope of artists ever being able to make a living at what they love to do, thus killing the artistic drive in so many of them. Maybe in a perfect world where money was not the center of our lives then copyright would be this great evil all of you seem to think, but in this society and economy, copyright *protects* the *rights* of the artists, whether you like it or not.
Really, it sounds to me like this is just a group of people whining because they might actualyl have to *pay* for something. Grow up and if you actually want to support art of any kind, then be willing to pay for it through a venue where the artist will actually see your money.
@Celeste:
Exactly from what copyright protects artists?
Are people not capable of singing?
Are people not capable of playing instruments and thus copying other?
Are people not capable of reproducing in private what they want?
Why would they want to buy it?
People buy it because they want that specific one person singing or writing or movie, they don’t want to go see Godfather without Marlon Brando the real product and the thing that brings in profit is the artist himself not a DVD or CD those are different types of products and they should die with the advance of the digital age.
Get some balls and start competing and working hard for a change.
In real life the one that have physical products creator don’t have control over what is done with their products once they live the factories.
Why should artists be any different?
Maybe if the music was free and right holders had no control of it what so ever people could create business around it and in turn pay the actual artist, artists gain nothing today but a fraction what would change if instead of a handful of mega corporations taking in the big bucks there were thousands of small ones that gain less but all of them are interested in the artist and pay him or her to go and make appearances, commercials, shows and paid for the use of hers image. Today artists will never now that because 4 big companies control everyone and decide how much they are going to pay for the artist.
Always this is all about money, people don’t want to have to pay for every single instance of what they consume over and over again even if the industry some how would achieve the goal of controlling every single copy ever made this would just drop their revenues.
I get flabbergast of how clueless artist are about business and the market dynamics they can’t see a centimeter in front of them.
The only guy’s that free sharing will have is on big corporations, even if there was no copyright in the world people still would buy crap oops I mean stuff from artists, sharing does not preclude the end of commerce it could be an ally but that is for the future to decide today is time to trade barbs LoL
Besides that there is the little question of privacy that the big 4 will need to get rid off to be able to control distribution channels of pseudo products.
Every single person on the face of this earth is risking seeing their privacy go out the window.
For them to stop people from sharing anything they have inspect what goes on in the wires(tubes if you like) so there goes privacy, someone somewhere will be watching everything you type or send and in some countries they want to go even further allowing law enforcement to put keyloggers and trojans in peoples computers without any supervision.
Will should I care I don’t do nothing wrong you say. Well that is not true every single country in the face of the earth have a body of law so extensive covering so much territory that no one not even judges and lawyers can know all the laws that are in existence today so if even the professionals don’t know how would you actually know if you did nothing wrong? You can’t and privacy is a layer that protects everyone for persecution and harassment. So even if artists don’t survive economically or make less they are not relevant for society.
@Phoe: right at the point! ID (Intelligent Design) is inseparable from IP (Intellectual Property).
And the Content Creator extolled by copyrightists is very akin to Mr. Creator from the Intelligent Design.
It is obvious that clockwork could not have “evolved” absent some intellgent Creator securing a patent for it, right? :)
@Celeste
“Without a copyright to even attempt to protect the rights of the artist, there’s no hope of artists ever being able to make a living at what they love to do”
Oh, so I guess artists can’t make a living in Spain and Canada? Because Spanish and Canadian law holds that filesharing for personal use is legal.
But wait a minute… Artists *can* and regularly *do* make a living in Canada and Spain! Uh oh.
You hear that? It’s the sound of your bullshit failing.
I wonder if the members on the Copyright Allowance membership list, fully understood the lunacy they signed up for?
They’re actually using a, too kindly stated, sub-par review from a self proclaimed think tank that studies the digital revolution. And the first and brightest shining idea that think tank had, was choosing pff for initials. …
Look at the sentence:
“The Copyright Alliance describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to promoting the value of copyright as a means to make money.”
how does 95+ year copyright benefit society?
How does life +95 years do it. more people = more copyrights = less ability to innovate off them.
Values are to be taught in school and church NOT in a govt run class room.
Education = facts only sirs. FAIL, and if i were a parent when will this end, them telling my kids what religion is best next? where is the line. BELIEF and the STATE are supposed ot be separate, OBAMAWOOD is becoming NOT ONLY CHANGE BUT AWFUL CHANGE
WELCOME TO 1984
Values are to be taught at home and church not class room …correction…
@ about Canada , the reason they make a living is the lower copyright STIMULATES more innovation and ability to actually do more with stuff while a 50 year old copyright is insane still a 15 year one would e more then reason able and you’d see an explosion of art and science go forward.
What is the difference?
People in the US are already raised to be stupid, they are raised not to question anything and accept their government’s bullshit without second thoughts. Surprisingly there are a LOT of great people there, I just wish their voices would be heard once in a while.
This comming from a country that in some states has a textbooks claiming the best defense against getting a girl pregnaunt is to have a cold shower, go to sleep and then thinking about it more clearly in the morning.
This lesson was bought to you by venture captalists and devote christians, good night.
Seriously, this reminds me to all those “abstinence-only sex education” programs in school, like Choosing the Best Life, full of factual errors (e.g. presenting gender stereotypes as scientific fact, claiming that condoms are ineffective against HIV, etc. just to make sex looks scary). Replace sex with copyright, and you have got Think First, Copy Later.
googoo gaga mpaa is alotta caca
@67 : Ironic, that you talk about a “pea sized brain” and you apparantly can’t put two and two together. I wasn’t talking about filesharing IN GENRAL. I was talking about the pirate bay. What the Pirate Bay is doing IS ilegal. Contrary to their arguements, it is THEY who have zero case. You can’t go giving away other people’s work and then start acting all smug and self righteous.
Again, as someone else said, all these anti copyright people baffle me. When someone creates something it’s theirs NOT YOURS FOR THE TAKING. I think #87 is right. People here don’t understand the real world and they think that money grows on trees. Most people here probably don’t have jobs, so they don’t understand the value of hard work. Instead they go on selfishly believing, like young child that everything in the world is theirs. It’s sort of like the “gimme gimme” phase, where the child thinks everything is theirs.
Many of the anti copyright people here deseperately cling to the notion that everything in the world is theirs for the taking.
@148 : you got it. People here are just opposed to the idea of paying for what they own.
So wrong…….Lets teach them that we came from butter while we are at it!
OK.. People should get paid for their work.. What’s so wrong or even groundbraking about that?
This is a real problem that effects Americas youth, and it’s better that t they learn the facts now than get in trouble later.
@trollstyles
“Ironic, that you talk about a “pea sized brain” and you apparantly can’t put two and two together.”
Haha. Ironic that you say I can’t put two and two together when you apparently can’t read. I said you have a *rat* sized brain. A rat’s brain is larger than a pea.
Maybe I was being too generous.
@trollstyles
“I wasn’t talking about filesharing IN GENRAL. I was talking about the pirate bay.”
Nice try. But I’m not going to let you dodge the point, and the point is this; you lied through your teeth that filesharing is theft.
Or… Wait, did you think I was replying to the part where you were talking about the Pirate Bay since you’re partially illiterate? Oh. In that case you’re forgiven. Just learn to read, okay? I hear Hooked on Phonics works wonders.
@trollstyles
“When someone creates something it’s theirs NOT YOURS FOR THE TAKING”
You’re damn right it’s not mine for the taking. It’s mine for the *sharing*. :D
<>
Again, you seem to have a talent for irony. You question my reding AFTER you contested that I labeled filesharing as illegal despite the fact that I never even mentioned filesharing.
Look at my post and see for yourself
“Nice try. But I’m not going to let you dodge the point, and the point is this; you lied through your teeth that filesharing is theft.”
I never mentioned filesharing EVER in this thread, so maybe you should look into hooked on phonics yourself?
<>
And my point is.. you made up something and have been using it to falssly refute my argument from the get go. I never mentioned filesharing. I mentioned piracy.
<>
Many pirates do this. They play games with words. Sharing, when it comes to something someone else created, is in effect stealing, because you are making one a copy of it and distributing it instead of paying for it.
@ 166 May 25, 2009 at 06:17 by neostyles
Care to offer proof for any of your lies?
This is how you get Hitler jugend.
Doesn’t surprise me. American Federal-funded public K-12 schools have nothing to do with education and never have. The textbook companies are all owned by the same people who are responsible for network news. I’m pretty sure a block of gelatin could pass the SOL tests. The whole system is anti-intellectual and anti-critical, with the exception of a few rogue high school departments….usually those wonderful hippies in the English and Civics departments.
Any propaganda will be burned, my peers and I will see to it…allot wont tolerate this
“People should get paid for their work”
Of course people should be paid for their work the real question is in what form and for what LoL
Definitely not for filesharing(pirating) that is more like TV or radio, that by the way passed 80 years without paying royalties. I mean the radio guys got 80 years without paying and the industry still did flourish an have had some of the biggest profits of all times.
In the digital age when supply and demand don’t apply anymore CDs and DVDs will die eventually after all who wants to buy a plastic disc that will be obsolete in 10 years and force you to pay thousands of dollars in replacements? or have to pay for something(filesharing) the is more like free TV then anything else?
Sharing is not stealing if it was every single radio listener or couch potato in the world is infringing on copyright right now.
I know what to do to those pirates that don’t pay nothing today for watching TV or radio. Compel the electronic industry to put chips on everything TV and radio and force people to buy those little plastic cards so they pay per view LoL
Why the industry don’t do that?
Why do they let millions of people around the world take what is “theirs” for free and do nothing?
Better yet we the people of the world will help out the entertainment industry and start a lobby group to tell congress to force electronics manufactures to intall devices that will function only if a card is inserted that will allow people to select which hour they wanted unlocked to view TV or listen to radio so no artist ever have to give his “hard”, “hard”, “hard”, “hard” work for free again LoL
Obviously someone will have to collect those proceedings in the name of artists and then distribute that in a “fair” manner. Who cares is the majority of artists that don’t make part of that body will never see a cent? or maybe freelancers could force the electronic industry again to instal other device that will function with only that card that comes with the writing “Only for indy and freelance content” LoL
Can you imagine the money to be made in that way?
any1 else notice that their logo looks very familiar to that of ally, the bank?
http://www.ally.com/
has the copyright alliance, in fact, violated a copyright?
I really find it hard to believe that you Hollywood trolls think we all live in our parents basements and dont have jobs. I pay for what i like. I download it if i like it enough i will buy it.
I would also like to point out i know several rich people who down and share with others are they criminals too? Are they bad for believing in a system that rewards you for making good products?
If this thing turned up at my school, I don’t know what I would do… I even tried thinking through and typing out a couple of things… Before deleting them.
It can’t last long…
Somebody above said, “If I did make music/games/arts/books/movies I’d want as many people to see it as possible. And then maybe those people who enjoy it a lot will donate a suitable amount.”
ROFLMAO — Believe me, if you spent months and sometimes years CREATING (as in making something from nothing; that’s what creating is)a work, be it music, art, books, poured in your life’s resources, your toil and often your tears, and it was what you worked at to pay your bills–you’d change your tune. (Assuming you’d created one.) That big ol’ juicy open heart would not be quite so generous if you actually had anything to lose.
When anyone downloads a (thankfully) copyrighted work from a pirate site they’re STEALING. End of story. Is stealing right just because you can? Is keeping the artist from earning money (and believe me, few of them earn much!)right because you can do it? Hey, I think I’ll kick that old lady’s cane out from under her!! Why shouldn’t I? After all, I CAN do it. So why should I? Huh?
I have never seen such a collection of comments from people who don’t know what they’re talking about, who have nothing at stake because they have created nothing, and who will pretty much turn themselves inside out to justify what they know perfectly well (IF they understand the difference between right and wrong, between stealing and fair compensation for work done) is wrong.
This isn’t a new problem. Charles Dickens fought this same fight in the 1800’s. American papers were serializing his work AND HE DIDN’T GIVE PERMISSION AND WASN’T PAID A DIME. But I suppose people here who think intellectual piracy is ok would think that was ok too.
Maybe we’re just a world of immoral pirates at heart. Take it because you can. Screw the artist. Because you can.
look at it this way
the small guys will be hit in this fight against the big corporations yes
the same can be said when we stormed the nazis and defeated them im sure innocent smaller people got hurt in the process but it was for the greater cause and we are all happy now. the small guys will not have died in vain
I don’t know if #179 was in response to me or not, but since there are other posts who refer ad nauseum to the “big corporations” I’ll respond. I’m assuming that the rants about the “big corporations” are referring to…what? Publishers like Random House? Mega-bookstores who gobble up independents? Of course there’s a point to made, I suppose.
But people, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of small presses out there, and self-publishers. I expect the majority of books are small press or self-published. SOMEBODY has invested money in them. Often they have invested everything they have. And then the pirates come along and scuttle their little boat trying to sail the publishing waters. And even if the only publishers were the Big Boys (who, I admit, don’t always play nice)that still doesn’t change the fact that to download free, copyrighted material that someone else created and invested money and/or years of sweat is … just … plain … stealing.
My children were brought up to believe in honesty and fairness. Maybe those are too old-fashioned today. They should be taught to respect intellectual rights as well as other rights. And if they’re not being in the home (and apparently some are not) then the schools have to do it. Schools have to teach a lot of things these days because the parents are too lazy or unconcerned to do it. Ethics should be taught, and that includes respect for the property of others, whether intellectual or physical.
@180 you cant tell me your denying the fact filesharing inceases awareness for a product and prmotes it and if people liek it they will spend their money on it
More and more artist are seeing this and are capitalizing on it.
These small presses and book publishers should be capitalizing on whats in front of them now use the new means of promotion to their advantage.
If the small guys scan adapt faster then the big guys then that will prove bigger isnt always better.
@ 178 May 26, 2009 at 00:45 by AuthorWhoLikesToPayBills
If you feel that way then maybe you should stop pirating and use bittorrent legally the way millions of people do every day.
@ 180 May 26, 2009 at 04:33 by AuthorWhoLikesToPayBills
If someone has led you to believe that people are downloading books, then you better do some more research. The only books being downloaded en masse are textbooks and you should be blaming the schools for forcing students to purchase them since they were already given tax money to do that.
Like the other poster, “Intelligent Design” was the first thing that came to mind when I read this.
AuthorWhoLikesToPayBills, I’m not worried about where my next meal is going to come from, but I’m a published author, musician and software engineer. Copyright law gives me the authority to *try* to license my non-work-for-hire in such a way that generates revenue for me, and I’m free to try to hold out for as much as the market will bear. But I don’t feel *entitled* to get paid top dollar for my work, and even when I’m getting a lot of money coming in for my work, I’ve always felt very lucky and was never been lulled into thinking I was going to be able to sustain it exclusively depend on that income. So, some of my work I voluntarily release under open licenses which encourage relatively unfettered distribution and innovative new uses of my work. Piracy, if you will. Don’t get this confused with surrendering copyright. I still retain copyright. I’m just not into holding my work for ransom, only doling it out to the highest bidders. Yes this means I don’t get paid as much as I might be able to squeeze out of some sucker on eBay, but that’s not why I created those things, and I don’t go around whining that people who didn’t pay that much somehow “stole” profits from me. People will like what I make or they won’t. They’ll buy it or borrow it or steal it or imitate it or ignore it because it sucks. That’s life. I go on creating and improving the quality of what I produce so that people will pay attention to it. Most of my income now comes from either my non-creative work or from my creative work-for-hire (things which I really do surrender the copyright to), which isn’t tied to direct distribution but rather to what amounts to novel derivative works and value-add services that people are more than willing to pay for. My liberally licensed work (the good stuff at least) gives me credibility and has helped land me jobs and clients. Also, my wife’s a full-time writer. She does tech, nonfiction, and fiction, under all kinds of business arrangements. She succeeds in this environment because she’s very pragmatic and knows how to self-promote and generate revenue without resorting to copyright-based extortion. She also knows that not every creative act guarantees income, even when it’s successfully held for ransom without anyone “pirating” it. The major publishing house handling her next work is counting on selling X number of copies, and they’ll do it, too. They’ll rake in way more than the paltry advance they’re giving her and her agent. This is the new reality. Adapt, work with it, exploit the open distribution channels, get more creative, make content and services people will still pay for … or go get a McJob. It’s your choice.
Heh, the BPI already tried this on in schools over here. It quickly stopped when it had no effect whatsoever, and students actually pirated more music. It was quite funny, actually, the videos potrayed Universal Muisc as some sort of benevolent company who worked only for the good and treated artists fairly xD
Also, just to make this clear, I am pro-copyright. I DO believe that artists have the right to protect what they create. But I do not support the draconian system of “share my stuff and I sue”. I prefer the system of Creative Commons, where the artist can actually keep control of what they create and set the terms of the contract, and the consumer can reuse and remix without fear of being crucified by a money-hungry corporation. It’s a win-win situation.
There used to be a fake piratebay that tried to trick people in thinking it was the real thing but they asked money, so I guess the copyright mafia are using that as a clever ploy to lie to kids and at the same time not lie by simply suggesting the fake and the real one are the same.
Nobody learns anything in schools in the US anyway. They can barely read, so who cares about copyright?
“kids should be taught to think critically so they can make up their own minds instead of being brainwashed with pro (or anti) copyright propaganda.”
this is a tad hypocritical on the part of torrent freak methinks
we have a joke
Two students come across a piece of paper.
“What’s this?”
“I don’t know, but let’s xerox it just in case”
Re:
““Think First, Copy Later,”
say I had a kid, and he/she came home and told me something like this, I would so write a nice little letter threatening legal action for the corruption of a minor, visit the leadership and so on for helping spread lies.
17 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.