EFF tries to counter industry misinformation on copyright
By Paul Biba
Here’s the front page of the EFF’s new site, Teaching Copyright. It is meant primarily for educators, to give them material they can use in teaching students the real skinny on copyright, as opposed the the misinformation a lot of the industry is passing out. Congrats to the EFF! As a lawyer I have often been appalled at some of the stuff the music and publishing industry as put out.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about legal rights and responsibilities in the digital era.
This is especially disconcerting when it comes to information being shared with youth. Kids and teens are bombarded with messages from a myriad of sources that using new technology is high-risk behavior. Downloading music is compared to stealing a bicycle — even though many downloads are lawful. Making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal — even though many such videos are also lawful.
This misinformation is harmful, because it discourages kids and teens from following their natural inclination to be innovative and inquisitive. The innovators, artists and voters of tomorrow need to know that copyright law restricts many activities but also permits many others. And they need to know the positive steps they can take to protect themselves in the digital sphere. In short, youth don’t need more intimidation — what they need is solid, accurate information.
EFF’s Teaching Copyright curriculum was created to help teachers present the laws surrounding digital rights in a balanced way.Teaching Copyright provides lessons and ideas for opening your classroom up to discussion, letting your students express their ideas and concerns, and then guiding your students toward an understanding of the boundaries of copyright law.
June 1st, 2009 at 10:45 pm
This is so interesting to me. I am gearing up for my summer job teaching computers at a camp, and I remember the director making the seven-year-olds sign contracts last year agreeing not to upload their work to YouTube because she was afraid it could get the camp sued. And I remember encouraging my Grade 2 students, who love Kid Pix, to check out Tux Paint (an open source alternative) at home and I was told by both kids and parents that they were sure it was illegal to download software at home. I explained to them, in some detail, why this was not always so, and how often the developers can benefit by releasing software in such a fashion by the free development and beta testing the fan community will do for them