The MPAA has opened a new front in their often Orwellian attempts to indoctrinate today’s youth about copyrights and piracy. Their latest plan of action has been aimed at the Boy Scouts in Los Angeles, the city that serves as the heart and soul of the MPAA.
The MPAA has developed a curriculum that teaches them the “ins and outs” of copyright laws to the Scouts and rewards them with a newly created “copyright badge.”
The patch depicts a CD, a film reel, and the universal copyright symbol, an enclosed “C” in the center.
The course, developed by the movie industry, will cover the basics of copyright law, how to identify types of copyrighted works, and 3 ways in which copyrighted materials may be stolen.
“Working with the Boy Scouts of Los Angeles, we have a real opportunity to educate a new generation about how movies are made, why they are valuable, and hopefully change attitudes about intellectual property theft,” Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement Friday.
The biggest kicker in all of this is the requirement that Scouts also perform an activity from a list that includes creating a public service announcement warning others about piracy, or visiting a movie studio to see who is impacted by it. Whether or not they talk to A-list movie stars that earn 20 million dollars per picture even if it’s horrible is unclear. Hollywood Homicide anyone? I don’t think they’ll sponsor a badge warning of the horrors of making a crappy movie will happy anytime soon.
This new MPAA “outreach” program is initially available only to the 52,000 Los Angeles area scouts ages 6 to 21. They plan to offer it to other California Boy Scout councils early next year.
The MPAA, an organization never devoid of wacky, ideas. If only they’d channel all that energy into making some decent movies for a change.
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Next thing you know boy scouts will have a snitching badge.
First of all the fact that MPAA assumes that boyscouts of america would download movies and music is absurd. I think boy scouts are pretty active in the wild and doing alot of other stuff. I doubt they sit at home downloading. Unless there just hating the part of being in the boy scouts.
i wonder what happens if you get the badge and then go home and download all the new movies that are in theatres what do they do take it away? just wondering
if i was a boyscout i would try to earn that badge. sounds easy and worth the time. its not like its taking a vow to never infringe copyright.
@NFSU2FREAK
Yes to track you they bind your IP address to the badge and if they notice p2p traffic they take it away =P
big business buys our youth again. get them smoking get the drinking booze. and make them think if they dupe a movie they are criminal scum.
and this is such an important skill to have when lost in the outdoors no doubt
and this is such an important skill to have when lost in the outdoors no doubt