OK, so I’m an Eagle Scout. I have a suspicion that at least a couple of our readers are, too. It is with that spirit that I am sad to write this story. The Boy Scout Council in Los Angeles has begun a new program to award Scouts a “Respect Copyrights” activity patch. Guess what it’s all about and who helped come up with the concept?
According to the article, “The movie industry developed the curriculum as a way of emphasizing the ills of piracy to a generation that has grown up finding free music and video clips on the Internet.” The kids will learn to recognize copyrighted materials and how they can be stolen by all the bad men on the Interweb. They will also have to participate in one activity that shows how pirating can be harmful, one of the items suggested is visiting a film studio. Right. Because the Suits over at New Line aren’t going to be able to eat dinner at Spago tonight because I downloaded “Snakes On A Plane” the other day. This makes me sad on so many levels.
L.A. Boy Scouts new activity patch: ‘Respect Copyrights’ [Mercury News via Gizmodo
On what levels does it make you sad?
The Boy Scouts created a merit badge where the goal is to learn about the world of copyright ownership, learn what the definition of stealing is and then don’t do it.” And the people who justly don’t want their stuff stolen and who have the most experience with stolen material helped write the criteria. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if Greenpeace helped write the criteria for the Ecology merit badge. Or if the Olympic Swim team was consulted for the Swimming merit badge. This isn’t the SONY Merit Badge.
It makes ME sad that a professed Eagle Scout has become so morally lost that he defends this position by painting a picture of “suits at Spago” as if that “suit” didn’t earn his way to lunching at Spago by being bright and talented over many years. Those suits you resent are doing everything they can to teach people that dozens and in some cases hundreds of people are not getting paid for their work because people have found an easy way to steal their work. They are protecting their company, sure, but that also means they’re protecting the stockholders and the tens of thousands of people who work for them and rely on residuals for income.
So what exactly makes you sad? That the big, greedy corporate guys are using the scouts as a tool to further their selfish corporate goals? When you downloaded Snakes On A Plane without paying you stole. From a lot of non-suit people who worked for the companies these suits control.
It appears you learned nothing about character from your years of scouting. THAT is sad.
“On my honor, I will do my best … to keep myself … morally straight.”
I didn’t make it to Eagle Scout, but I remember that much. While I find it disappointing that the Los Angeles Area Council is depending on curriculum developed by Industry, I am not particularly offended by it.
Meanwhile, you might dust off your dictionary to refresh your memory on the word “Trustworthy” and recognize that “Thrifty” excludes illicit activity.
I’m not sure I understand your point about refreshing my memory of the meaning of trustworthy and thrifty. I didn’t use those words in my rant so I’m not sure why I need to review their meaning.
If you mean that media companies sometimes are not trustworthy themselves and use their budgets in ways that are not careful economically (thrifty) you have no argument here. If the studios were to write the curriculum for a “business ethics” merit badge I would have a problem. But their stance on protecting copyrighted material is a correct one and, aside from the music industry, nobody has more to lose than them.
Bill,
I wasn’t replying to your comment, which I agree with. Rather, my separate comment was directed at Gavin’s original post, particularly his unrepentant confession to violating copyright law.
I find this a bit odd, and agree that it has a bit of the feel of feeding one side of a narrow interest.
But I would not have been the least bit put off by a “business ethics” or a “publication ethics” program that had a badge associated with it … projects could examine ethical issues on both sides of the business/consumer divide, and even get into the fun stuff analyzing tension between competing rights and interests. Of course, that would require thought and might even provoke debate and disagreement — rote memory is so much easier to manage.