Hey Kids: Revere Intellectual Property Rights

[George at Orwellian.Org]

http://salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/16/abc_ip/index.html
#    
#    Why can't Johnny respect copyrights?
#    
#    In Britain, elementary-school classrooms prepare to preach 
#    reverence for intellectual property -- and to denounce the
#    evils of file-sharing.
#    
#    - - - - - - - - - - - -
#    
#    By Alan Docherty
#    
#    July 16, 2001 
#    
#    If members of the U.K.'s Creative Industries Task Force
#    [ http://www.culture.gov.uk/creative/creative_industries.html ]
#    have their way, British teenagers will soon be cramming 
#    for tests on intellectual property law and the legal implications 
#    of file-sharing. Schoolkids who download illicit MP3 files, cut 
#    and paste newspaper articles or e-mail them, or exchange JPEG 
#    files of Britney Spears will learn the error of their ways -- 
#    at least according to the copyright officials.
#    
#    Classroom indoctrination is one way of targeting the Napster 
#    demographic. But can it work?
#    
#    To get a glimpse of this possible future of British elementary 
#    education, one must wade through a study produced by the task 
#    force's Intellectual Property Group, which includes represent
#    atives from British broadcasting, the music industry, publishers 
#    and others with an interest in protecting copyrighted material. 
#    The Report of the Intellectual Property Group of the Creative 
#    Industries Task Force
#    [ http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/pdf/ipgroup.pdf ]
#    recommends, among other things, that copyright be brought into
#    the classroom -- not as a separate course, necessarily, but
#    integrated into the regular curriculum.
#    
#    "Copyright is relevant to music, art, information, technology, 
#    and English; and patents and design rights are relevant to science 
#    and design technology," reads the report. It goes on to recommend 
#    specific ways teachers might make copyright issues a little more 
#    real to their 12- to 18-year-olds: "School children should 
#    recognize their own creativity by including the copyright symbol 
#    on their course work."
#    
#    
#    Interest in bringing copyright into the classroom is growing 
#    among government officials in Britain as well. Chris Smith, 
#    secretary of state for culture, media and sport, recently said: 
#    "Intellectual property rights are at the heart of the new 
#    knowledge economy and are of vital importance to the creative 
#    industries. Greater recognition by the public of the role and 
#    importance of intellectual property rights must be encouraged."
#    
#    Intellectual property is already a part of the British school 
#    system, but mostly in the higher grades. An "Intellectual Property 
#    Pack Set," a CD-ROM designed to "Give Students Competitive Edge," 
#    [ http://www.prowse.co.uk/O240500.html ]
#    is produced by the Patent Office in conjunction with Bournemouth 
#    University and distributed to students across the country. 
#    Meanwhile, officials at the Patent Office, which is responsible 
#    for copyright, patents and trade marks in the U.K., are holding 
#    regular meetings with officials at the Department for Education 
#    and Skills to bring intellectual property issues into the 
#    curriculum at an early age.
#    
#    So where does copyright fit in to the classroom fare of a British 
#    12-year-old? Teaching intellectual property is one of many 
#    competing areas trying to be part of the "citizenship" subject, 
#    which will become compulsory in U.K. secondary schools beginning 
#    in September 2002. This new citizenship program aims to teach 
#    pupils social and moral responsibility, political literacy, sex 
#    education and the importance of marriage and family life.
#    
#    According to the Patent Office's director of copyright, Anthony 
#    Murphy, a major proponent of the new program, understanding 
#    intellectual property carries important social value: "By bringing 
#    awareness of the importance of copyright into our schools, 
#    tomorrow's consumers can take their place in a community which 
#    understands, values and respects intellectual property."
#    
#    But even the program's proponents agree that teenagers may not 
#    be receptive to a program that teaches them that trading MP3s 
#    is morally wrong. Anthony Murphy acknowledges that: "The idea 
#    that counterfeiting and piracy are victimless crimes is an all 
#    too common perception."
#    
#    Jessica Litman, professor of law at Wayne State University and 
#    author of "Digital Copyright," agrees. "Young people, and other 
#    people, believe in a version of the copyright law that is 
#    different from the one now on the books. Many of them believe, 
#    for example, that if you buy a CD, you buy the right to share 
#    it. "
#    
#    Some opponents also argue that it may be inappropriate to be 
#    bringing intellectual property (I.P.) education into the classroom 
#    when laws surrounding it are so hotly contested. Litman says 
#    that educating children on the difference between "good" and 
#    "bad" behavior is tough in a field that's in flux: "Any effort 
#    to include I.P. in a moral education curriculum has to grapple 
#    with the fact that the moral choices made in extant versions 
#    of I.P. law are highly contested."
#    
#    Finally, if controversy over intellectual property can be managed 
#    into a school curriculum, will students learn the lesson? As 
#    with the American DARE program, will educators find that telling 
#    students what decision to make might actually backfire?
#    [ http://salon.com/mwt/feature/2001/02/16/dare/print.html ]
#    
#    According to James Davison Hunter, professor of sociology and 
#    religious studies at the University of Virginia and author of 
#    "The Death of Character," "Moral education programs have little 
#    or no positive effect upon moral behavior, achievement or anything 
#    else."
#    
#    The desire to preach citizenship reflects a deep-rooted anxiety 
#    about whether young people can grow into law-abiding citizens. 
#    Copyright educators can only hope that students aren't immune 
#    to their teachings.