Brainwashing Children With File Swapping Ethics?

[Guru]

from 3dspotlight

Slashdot.org are carrying a story so AMAZING that I KNEW I had to post about it here. You may find this one a little hard to swallow, and don't be surprised if someone writes in to say its some premature (or very late!) April fool's joke. Its certainly a little too hard to believe:

"According to the New York Times, the movie/record industries are taking their concerns about P2P file sharing into the classroom (free reg. req.) Among other activities, they are planning to play a game called 'Starving Artist' with 5th-9th graders, where students come up with an idea for a record album, cover art, and lyrics only to be told by teachers that the album is already available for download for free."

The first reply on the thread says it all:

I think I'm going to brainwash little kids too. We'll play a game called "Let's sue 12-year old girls!"

This whole thing started as annoying. Then it became worrying. Then maddening. Then infuriating. But now... now its just sort of odd. One wonders what new, strange and wonderful feat of insanity will be next. Asking President Bush to exile P2P file swappers from US soil? The death penalty? Who knows....

In a world where you can be spat on in the street for the color of your skin, one would think that the time in classrooms would be better spent teaching children to be kind to one another, to have patience, to learn tolerance. Anything but this rubbish.

More here.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/25/0510208&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=146&tid=95&tid=99

[Technoid]

If this is true, then they have gone over the deeep end

(is it just me or are the thread structure on /. really messed up!?!)

[KvHagedorn]

I know.. let's play it a different way.. a game where you do all that work and some sleazebag in a suit takes 99% of the money because he took advantage of your band and ripped you off with a enslaving contract when you were young. Then you have to change your name to an arcane symbol (like Prince did) to get out of the contract, or simply do nothing for five years (like Clint Black did) because it is pointless. Artists have been ripped off by recording companies and "agents" for years.. the real lesson for the gradeschoolers is, what goes around comes around..

[Admiral]

...they are planning to play a game called 'Starving Artist'

Apply what KvH said to this quote, you can also add a few disgusted smileys if you want.

[Gurm]

The record companies are becoming more and more desperate. The problem is that they are never really prepared for technological innovation. We're talking about big companies, mired in a 20-year-old way of doing things. It takes them forever to catch up.

In the 70's and 80's they had a hard time figuring out that 8-track was dead, that you could record onto casette tape, and that they couldn't tell their artists what clothes to wear and what to eat and who to date like they did in the 50's.

In the 90's and today, they're having a hard time figuring out that computers won't just "go away" if they ignore them or legislate against them.

They'll catch up - by 2020.

- Gurm

[thop]

The so called artists can all starve for all i care, and the big companies behind them as well. All the music i listen to is from small labels which i support with every penny, so i'm not in any danger of running out of music for the next 20 years