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Culture

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Jul 16th 2001 12:50am





Brainwashing Kids Early About Intellectual Property

from the moral-questions dept

In the UK they're now trying to teach kids that file sharing is bad while they're still in elementary school. I can understand the arguments for teaching about intellectual property - but since intellectual property laws are currently so unclear, I think it's dangerous to indoctrinate children so young with the ideas of what's right and what's wrong in a subject that many people don't agree on. Of course, maybe this will just make the kids more rebellious, and they'll shout down the idiot adults who don't know what they're talking about. I'm all for discussing the concepts with people of all ages - however, I don't think it's fair to tell the kids flat out that "file sharing is bad", when that's certainly open for debate. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if school children have some very interesting opinions on what's wrong and what's right about file sharing.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    Copyright

    identicon
    Duffman, Jul 16th, 2001 @ 7:45am

    I found it humourous that they encourage kids to put the copyright symbol on their work. Does this mean that they children can restrict the school from displaying their creations? i.e. "Ummm, sorry, I know I played that jazz solo, but that's a creation of mine, and I don't want you using it for the school's promotional video" or "Yes, that is my artwork, and no, you can't display it in the regional art festival under the school's banner." It would be interesting if someone ever did this, how the school would react. Will schools start having students sign a contract handing over their I.P. rights before they can attend classes that year?

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    Re: Copyright

    identicon
    xdroop, Jul 16th, 2001 @ 8:05am

    Will schools start having students sign a contract handing over their I.P. rights before they can attend classes that year?

    When I attended univeristy in Canada ten years ago, I had to do that -- one of the pages of mumbo-jumbo in the enrollment kit said something to the effect of by enrolling and completing payment of school fees, the student agrees that items, objects, property or inventions created by the student in the normal course of assigned work remains the property of the university.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Re: Copyright

    identicon
    Duffman, Jul 16th, 2001 @ 8:41am

    Yes, most universities require that these days - I currently attend the University of Regina, and it is one of the very few that don't require you to sign over your rights. They just 'expect' that if you make money off something (i.e. a project), that you'll return the favour sometime. It's not required, but most who have actually done this tend to return the favour, at least, a little bit. In my comment, I was actually speaking about some savvy 14 year old kid who decided to take on her junior high school (theoretically).

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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