UK Government Teaches 7-Year-Olds That Piracy Is Stealing

[Megalith]

The UK is doubling down on its efforts to steer people away from piracy at an early age. Cartoons that “educate kids on key intellectual property issues, including illegal downloading” are now being integrated into school curriculum for children as young as five. Critics say that this is dangerous, as it is merely simplifying the complexities of copyright law.

Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group, notes that the campaign is a bit extreme at points. “Infringing copyright is a bad thing, but it is not the same as physical theft. Many children will guess that making a copy is not the same as making off with the local store’s chocolate bars,” he says.

 

[sfsuphysics]

So do they also give a PSA video on why taking anything from anyone is wrong? Like if you take Bobby's pudding snack cup out of his bag at recess? Or is this just big business throwing it's might around to get a PSA that serves it's interest into schools.

Out of the things to be upset about your school doing with your kid, this does rank fairly low but still I'd be upset that class time was done to "teach" this.

 

[Jim Kim]

You wouldn't download a car.

 

[DukenukemX]

This is totally going to work seeing as this is about anthropomorphic animals who made music and sold it on fucking CD. Where kids today are on tablets where majority of the shit they watch is on YouTube, which is free. This also goes for music. Also, how the fuck they knew the people who were posting it online didn't buy their music? This is fucking music which means anyone could hear it anywhere, not just on a CD or on YouTube. You don't necessarily need to buy the music to hear it.

Keep in mind that kids today get everything for free on tablets, and their idea of entertainment is a retarded doll with a pencil up its nose.

 

[ir0nw0lf]

See how many of you remember these...

 

[tetris42]

I'm glad as a society, we see it fit to make this a priority topic to teach to 5 year olds. Out of the many things they should learn, this one is so essential that it has to make its way into schools.

 

[cjcox]

I know I'll get flamed for this. Many of my friend are artists. When you illegally copy material (download) instead of paying for it, they lose money. Why did they lose money? Because of what you did. You can paint that anyway you want, or call it what you want, and while I know that people don't want to hear this, you really really need to ask the question, was it RIGHT to download material you didn't obtain rights to?? I don't care if you call it theft or cheese-wiz (used without permission).

So, stay focused folks. People who "obtain things without permission" and believe they are entitled to do so without repercussion , tend to continue to "obtain things without permission". Yes, I know you hate my guts, etc., etc.. What do we want to teach our children? To do right? Or to do wrong?

 

[cjcox]

I'm glad as a society, we see it fit to make this a priority topic to teach to 5 year olds. Out of the many things they should learn, this one is so essential that it has to make its way into schools.

But, honestly (something you probably don't think is important)... basic principals of right and wrong shouldn't be joked about.

 

[cjcox]

You wouldn't download a car.

But apparently it's ok to open an unlocked door to a car and take to Toledo.

 

[tetris42]

But, honestly (something you probably don't think is important)... basic principals of right and wrong shouldn't be joked about.

The point is it's insane to focus this on 5 year olds. Sure, teach right and wrong, not to hit people, not to take things that aren't theirs, have respect for other people. Should we teach them that embezzling is wrong too? What about tax evasion? And hey, we can't leave out insider trading! That's wrong, we should teach that too, right? This is a topic that can wait a few years, and even then it could wait until a computer class or something. No company or band is losing revenue because a 5 year old was pirating their video, they don't even have money. You'll be lucky if they don't try to put the mouse in their mouth.

There's a finite number of things you can teach students in a year. This is competing against things like learning about the states of water as steam, liquid, and ice; how plants use photosynthesis; what adjectives are; how addition and subtraction works. No, fuck that, let's take some time away from fundamentals to make room for making sure they understand online duplication of copyrighted material held by record labels. It's not a matter of whether piracy is wrong or not, it's a matter of priorities for the right age. This is insane.

 

[AaronGant]

Sharing is Caring

 

[DrLobotomy]

Maybe they should teach them how to brush their teeth first.

 

[acidrain97]

Great animation. I would be more entertained if South Park would do a PSA for this bullshit. It's only illegal if you get caught.

 

[Kdawg]

i know it's stealing, and i do it anyway because i can.

but I hate when people argue otherwise.
they just haven't had their creations copied and unpaid for, and can't imagine what it's like, or are in denial.

 

[MrDeaf]

oh, if we could only do away with money entirely.
Then the artists can do what they love doing best and have their work appreciated by many more people, rather than being locked behind a paywall, otherwise known as advertisement.

 

[Azphira]

Insufficient technology to do away with money, because too much money is being spent combating many forms of immorality to get technology there in a more timely manner.

 

[Tsumi]

I know I'll get flamed for this. Many of my friend are artists. When you illegally copy material (download) instead of paying for it, they lose money. Why did they lose money? Because of what you did. You can paint that anyway you want, or call it what you want, and while I know that people don't want to hear this, you really really need to ask the question, was it RIGHT to download material you didn't obtain rights to?? I don't care if you call it theft or cheese-wiz (used without permission).

So, stay focused folks. People who "obtain things without permission" and believe they are entitled to do so without repercussion , tend to continue to "obtain things without permission". Yes, I know you hate my guts, etc., etc.. What do we want to teach our children? To do right? Or to do wrong?

It has been proven time and time again that a pirated download does not equal a lost sale. Your friends haven't lost anything because the pirate wouldn't have bought it if they couldn't obtain it legally. In fact, there was an article a few months ago saying that piracy can potentially boost sales because it gives exposure to people who would not have otherwise heard about it.

Even assuming that there is a small number of pirates that would have otherwise bought, that number is insignificant compared to the potential exposure. Then there are those that want to experience what they are getting before buying and wouldn't have bought it otherwise, and so on. Equating a pirated download to a lost sale is a fallacy.

There are much better things time and money can be spent on other than chasing pirates. How about investing in renewable energy and teaching math and science to kids? How about scholarships for higher education? The list goes on.

 

[Bobert]

Remember Metallicops? NSFW.

 

[defaultluser]

 

[nutzo]

I know I'll get flamed for this. Many of my friend are artists. When you illegally copy material (download) instead of paying for it, they lose money. Why did they lose money? Because of what you did. You can paint that anyway you want, or call it what you want, and while I know that people don't want to hear this, you really really need to ask the question, was it RIGHT to download material you didn't obtain rights to?? I don't care if you call it theft or cheese-wiz (used without permission).

I enjoy stealing from the Hollywood types that are suffering with TDS.
Somethings I'll even download a movie 4 or 5 times just to increase their losses.
It's the only way I can show my displeasure with their vocal politics.

 

[Master_shake_]

it's not theft if you are a giant conglomerate.

https://gizmodo.com/5913115/jay-leno-stole-a-guys-youtube-video-and-then-got-it-banned

 

[Master_shake_]

I know I'll get flamed for this. Many of my friend are artists. When you illegally copy material (download) instead of paying for it, they lose money. Why did they lose money? Because of what you did. You can paint that anyway you want, or call it what you want, and while I know that people don't want to hear this, you really really need to ask the question, was it RIGHT to download material you didn't obtain rights to?? I don't care if you call it theft or cheese-wiz (used without permission).

So, stay focused folks. People who "obtain things without permission" and believe they are entitled to do so without repercussion , tend to continue to "obtain things without permission". Yes, I know you hate my guts, etc., etc.. What do we want to teach our children? To do right? Or to do wrong?

instead of buying your firends cd i watch his song on his VEVO channel with an adblocker.

am i still a thief?

 

[ZLoth]

And what is the message the kid is getting at home?

 

[rgMekanic]

See how many of you remember these...

I came here to post "Don't Copy That Floppy"

Kudos for beating me to it

 

[dark_reign]

Mindless entertainment has zero value. Never heard of an actor, musician or company that went broke solely from piracy.

 

[jevans64]

I know I'll get flamed for this. Many of my friend are artists. When you illegally copy material (download) instead of paying for it, they lose money. Why did they lose money? Because of what you did. You can paint that anyway you want, or call it what you want, and while I know that people don't want to hear this, you really really need to ask the question, was it RIGHT to download material you didn't obtain rights to?? I don't care if you call it theft or cheese-wiz (used without permission).

So, stay focused folks. People who "obtain things without permission" and believe they are entitled to do so without repercussion , tend to continue to "obtain things without permission". Yes, I know you hate my guts, etc., etc.. What do we want to teach our children? To do right? Or to do wrong?

I can agree with this, but I think the length of copyright is completely out of touch with reality. Life of artist plus 75 years? Come on... No one should use " preview " as a reason to download. Wait a week or two and there will be tons of reviews available to read. I'm in no hurry and will get reviews before I purchase content. It has worked well for me since I was old enough to earn money to buy stuff with, whether it was talking with staff at record and video stores or reading stuff on-line. What movies I don't buy on disc I can wait to watch on NetFlix, Amazon, or HBO. I have a different perspective since I worked in the industry in post-production for the better part of two decades. I think the major studios lose to piracy but the little studios or independent artists can benefit from it.

 

[Spire3660]

But, honestly (something you probably don't think is important)... basic principals of right and wrong shouldn't be joked about.

dude, copyright in it current form is ABSOLUTELY wrong. The only solution now is to abolish it ALL and start over. Dont come in here and defend this shit because i will destroy you with facts. Copyright is an abhorrent mess that extracts more value than it provides. EVERYTHING from the 1970s and before should be 100% completely public domain. Works form the 1920s still arent public domain...

 

[Tsumi]

dude, copyright in it current form is ABSOLUTELY wrong. The only solution now is to abolish it ALL and start over. Dont come in here and defend this shit because i will destroy you with facts. Copyright is an abhorrent mess that extracts more value than it provides. EVERYTHING from the 1970s and before should be 100% completely public domain. Works form the 1920s still arent public domain...

Disney needs to keep their copyright stranglehold on Mickey Mouse.

 

[commodork6510]

You wouldn't download a car.

every time i fire up my old windows 98 rig to play need for speed high stakes, i chuckle at the "download car" option. that it's a game by EA makes it somewhat sweeter, somehow.

 

[commodork6510]

Mindless entertainment has zero value.

good thing they don't charge per post then

 

[Hakaba]

Make a better product, allow people to obtain/consume how they want, don’t region lock for no reason, screw your always online single player, keep your shit previews/bloatware off my paid for product... I can keep going on and on...

 

[Nvidia_ATI]

Catch 'em when they are youngins. We will see if it will work in 5-10 years ....

 

[rudy]

The point is it's insane to focus this on 5 year olds. Sure, teach right and wrong, not to hit people, not to take things that aren't theirs, have respect for other people. Should we teach them that embezzling is wrong too? What about tax evasion? And hey, we can't leave out insider trading! That's wrong, we should teach that too, right? This is a topic that can wait a few years, and even then it could wait until a computer class or something. No company or band is losing revenue because a 5 year old was pirating their video, they don't even have money. You'll be lucky if they don't try to put the mouse in their mouth.

There's a finite number of things you can teach students in a year. This is competing against things like learning about the states of water as steam, liquid, and ice; how plants use photosynthesis; what adjectives are; how addition and subtraction works. No, fuck that, let's take some time away from fundamentals to make room for making sure they understand online duplication of copyrighted material held by record labels. It's not a matter of whether piracy is wrong or not, it's a matter of priorities for the right age. This is insane.

If people learn to do something at a young age they are more likely to keep doing it and justify it later in life. I think its reasonable to try to work on something so core to society now at a young age. The article says 7 and ya that's definitely a time when a lot of kids are starting to get to know how to use their electronic devices. I work in a variety of fields where I see professionals at all levels ignoring copyright, not crediting etc... And I think that there seems to be some disconnect they don't get because its a computer and not something the neighbor owns. Maybe getting to them at a younger age would help.


Isnt that exactly what they are doing teching them not to take things that are not theirs?

Mindless entertainment has zero value. Never heard of an actor, musician or company that went broke solely from piracy.

That is because they never got big enough for you to hear about them. I was involved heavily in the art world for a long time. I knew tons of artists, not the famous type the average people trying to make a living the ones we call starving artists. They don't have the resources to prosecute, they don't have the time. And in fact I was a victim on multiple occasions myself. For them and ones whom make less than them piracy is real. For some mega hit pop star, even if 50% of all the songs you hear are pirated or stolen they are still living in a 20 million dollar house in Hollywood, sure it doesn't stop them. However, for smaller artists it may just be what forces them to give up and get a day job.

It never seems to matter though because the vast majority of people are not artists, so they don't get it. They just won't ever care because its more in their own best interest to see people take a apathetic approach to all this.

If you pirate or steal, just admit it, don't try to come up with some bogus reason why you think you are justified. If you don't think some big company deserves what they get, then by all means don't buy their art, or steal it, that's actually the most effective way to punish them. You are all pretty much right that the big companies won't die from piracy, but it can certainly kill the small ones.

A lot of the old reasons people cited for piracy don't even apply anymore now. My favorite is I just wanted to preview it. You can find almost anything on a multitude of streaming services now to preview it. Same with 2D art you can look at a picture of it.

 

[MaZa]

That is actually pretty genius. They have finally figured out that our generation is a lost cause. We grew up copying discs and CDs to friends. We didn't even think about the legality, we just liked sharing the joy with each other. Sharing is caring as someone mentioned above. It was always exciting when someone either bought a new game or acquired it some other way, and we all got a copy. When internet became a bigger thing the bad habit continued. Though the friends part did become lesser it is still hard to think we are doing anything illegal when someone is giving a free copy of some game or program, we are so used to it.

Future generations though, better indoctrinate them young so when they grow up they will less likely become pirates. It is easier to prevent a habit from forming in the first place if you have a negative view towards it than it is to unlearn a habit which you are not thinking is bad.

Mind you, I am not thinking this is ok, hell brainwashing kids is always bad. I am just giving them credit for using their brains for once instead of banging their heads at a wall.

 

[tetris42]

If people learn to do something at a young age they are more likely to keep doing it and justify it later in life. I think its reasonable to try to work on something so core to society now at a young age. The article says 7 and ya that's definitely a time when a lot of kids are starting to get to know how to use their electronic devices. I work in a variety of fields where I see professionals at all levels ignoring copyright, not crediting etc... And I think that there seems to be some disconnect they don't get because its a computer and not something the neighbor owns. Maybe getting to them at a younger age would help.


Isnt that exactly what they are doing teching them not to take things that are not theirs?

If you don't see the problem with this, I doubt you're going to. These are critical years for development. I'd much rather a student learn the fundamentals of life, physics, math, history v. understanding the subtleties of copyright law. Does a room full of 1st and 2nd graders really need a quiz to understand why watching a music video for free on Youtube is alright, but downloading that same video as an MP3 is wrong? Are their brains even going to understand that it is wrong, since it's not actually stealing, more like freeloading? To sum it up:

-They're too young for schools to be focusing on this. If they were 13, it might make more sense.
-It's taking time away from learning critical knowledge
-It's not something you can easily explain to a child why it's right and wrong. Why is it legal to watch the video on Youtube for free with adblocker, but not download the MP3? Is it ethical for the publisher to take the vast majority of the income, with a pittance going towards the artist? Why does the RIAA sue grandmothers for stealing music who don't own a computer? This is not as simple as "don't take Suzy's lunch, she was going to eat that."
-Out of all the real world problems we could be teaching students, this is close to the bottom of importance. What's more important, downloading an MP3, or learning about how a chemical manufacturer dumps toxins into the groundwater and makes people sick? I guarantee you teaching this at such a young age will come before anything related to pollution, which is far more important to learn about.

I think you may not realize just how bad the education system already is that it doesn't need a copyright agenda being pushed on top of that. It's not that it's wrong so much as it's the wrong priority. The majority of Americans don't know the 3 branches of government. 15% of American adults are illiterate. 1 in 4 thinks that the sun orbits the earth, I'm not shitting you. This should get a mention during a computer class for a later age, that's it. To prioritize not downloading an MP3 in children over basic understanding of the world just shows how much indoctrination there already is.

 

[Stimpy88]

And for those with a brain... Who can see Hollywood pulling the strings all over the world.

 

[nightanole]

LOL, if companies did not give out there crap for free, people would never hear about it and want their own official copy to play when ever they want. If you have never heard the song for free, you would never buy it. If you never at least saw the game play for free, you would never buy it.

 

[steakman1971]

When I was a young lad with my C64, I used to pirate lots of software. However, I did buy games when I had money or if it was one I really liked. As an example, I used to buy the Bard's Tale games, Ultima games (you got maps, books, etc), ...
Of the games I downloaded, I really didn't even play most of them. It was more of getting a few more so I could upload elsewhere for credits. I didn't have much extra money, so I never could have purchased 10% of the games in my collection. So, the age old argument of did I really cost anyone anything? (I'm not defending what I did was right - I'm just saying I would not have bought the games anyway.)
Now as an adult, I do not pirate software at all. I buy way more games than I can play. My Steam collection has about 1000 titles in it yet I've played maybe 10%? Geez - I seem to be a data hoarder!

 

[westrock2000]

Save money by using computer standards and hardware that were designed with the sole intention of copying data.
Complain about content being copied while on said format.

 

[bugleyman]

"Piracy" isn't stealing; it's copyright violation. These are NOT the same thing, and deliberate attempts to conflate the two only serve to underscore the fact that the big copyright holders know this.

(And no, I'm NOT condoning piracy, I'm lamenting the fact that corporations have been so successful at confusing this issue.)