David Kravets at Wired highlights the MPAA’s upcoming educational program. The curriculum—which “comes in different flavors for every grade from kindergarten through sixth”—tries to teach children to Just Say No to digital piracy. A series of videos and lesson plans under the name “Be the Creator” discuss the value of intellectual property. Here’s a “key concept” from the 2nd grade lesson plan:
Property comes in many forms: when we buy a book, we own that book. It’s our property, but we don’t own the right to reproduce that book and then sell it or give it away. That’s stealing.
Okay, that’s such a simplified statement that it’s hard to argue with it. But what about quoting in reviews? What about building on the ideas presented in the book via an artistic conversation? What about remixing or sampling or collaging? Look, I don’t think we should be encouraging piracy or teaching kids how to illegally torrent television shows in schools. But shouldn’t IP theft fall under the broader umbrella of “stealing is bad,” maybe? And there are some sketchy lessons in the MPAA’s curriculum. Kravets reports:
“This thinly disguised corporate propaganda is inaccurate and inappropriate,” says Mitch Stoltz, an intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who reviewed the material at WIRED’s request.
“It suggests, falsely, that ideas are property and that building on others’ ideas always requires permission,” Stoltz says. “The overriding message of this curriculum is that students’ time should be consumed not in creating but in worrying about their impact on corporate profits.”
Is this really something that schools should be spending their valuable time on, in between the relentless bouts of preparation for the next standardized test?