Lucky and Flo used to help "educate" kids about the "importance of copyright laws."Lucky and Flo, the world's first-ever DVD-sniffing dogs, made a visit to Clover Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles a few days ago to kick-off a three-city North American tour that will include visits to Mexico City and Washington DC in honor of World Intellectual Property Day. The MPAA teamed up with Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel – Chair of the Los Angeles Anti- Piracy Task Force – and Internet safety expert Dr. Parry Aftab to talk to Clover's fourth and fifth graders about the importance of copyright protection with the assistance of the MPAA's very own Lucky and Flo. "Lucky and Flo have traveled all over the world assisting law enforcement officials in tracking down pirate operations and have helped raise global awareness about the problem of motion picture piracy. These special dogs are helping us educate children about the importance of respecting copyrights while presenting it in a fun and exciting way," said MPAA executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations John Malcolm. But, what's unclear is why such young children must be subject to such efforts. Certainly showing them two DVD-sniffing canines is meant to scare them to some degree. Why else would they tout their ability to sniff out pirated goods? I'll bet they even did a demonstration where they hid a pirated DVD in one of the kids' lockers for Lucky or Flo to find, further frightening young children into copyright law submission. "Education is key to further any efforts undertaken to protect intellectual property. By speaking to kids at this age level we are working to instill early-on the importance of protecting copyrights and the negative consequences of piracy," said council member Greuel. "Film piracy harms local economies, kills jobs and impacts everyone who is involved in the production and distribution of movies." Yet, again we have a case of copyright holders using heavy-handed tactics to "educate people." Surely these elementary school age children are too young to sell bootleg DVDs so is it digital piracy that it's concerned with? If this is the case I hope someone tells the kids that Lucky and Flo can't detect pirated movies on your hard disk drive. |
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In elementary we had presentations with a guest who would come in and show how to take care of your teeth or to stay safe on the streets, teaching that has much more real value.
I'd love it if I got to meet the Dogs though.