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The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

theguardian.com

31–40 of 61 posts

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#31
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that giving kids an accurate understanding is important — the problem with these teaching materials is that they're being very selective in which parts of copyright law that they teach: According to the linked article, there's no mention of Fair Use provisions, which the record industry would much rather you didn't take advantage of, in the curriculum at all.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I blew my stack when my child was assigned this worksheet from the the RIAA's Music Rules! program as homework: http://www.music-rules.com/pdf/MusicRulesElemActivities.pdf Part 2 is particularly egregious: "Now find out if songlifting is a real problem in your community. Use this chart to interview family members and friends about where they get their music. Bring your findings…

I sense the approach of Mike Godwin on this one.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#32

I'm actually impressed at how slanted the title is. Using the words "cartel" and "indoctrinate" hits on two major scare points and we don't even have to read a word of the article. Very tough for me to trust what they have to say since they didn't think the words themselves were convincing enough.

"Cartel" seems like a distortion to me, too, but "indoctrinate" seems like a perfectly valid label for the attempt to systematically teach small children to support a political stance. If you wouldn't call that true indoctrination, what would qualify?

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#33
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What have we become? A nation of thieves. Actually, seems we started that way.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

The people who were here thousands of years before Puritan nutcases started getting dumped here to get them away from the civilized people, would beg to disagree, if they hadn't mostly been genocided away. Thats probably what OP was referencing.

America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago. The noob bible thumpers arriving a couple centuries ago wiped out the first wave pretty effectively but they hardly "started it".

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#34
Comedy gold:

>Artists are “graded” or valued by how many people buy their work.

>We hope others will respect our work ... And we ‘play fair’ with their work too.

No mention of Melchior Rietveldt, Patrick Robin, of course. And certainly nothing like Courtney Love Does The Math.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#35

I'm actually impressed at how slanted the title is. Using the words "cartel" and "indoctrinate" hits on two major scare points and we don't even have to read a word of the article. Very tough for me to trust what they have to say since they didn't think the words themselves were convincing enough.

"Cartel" seems like a distortion to me, too, but "indoctrinate" seems like a perfectly valid label for the attempt to systematically teach small children to support a political stance. If you wouldn't call that true indoctrination, what would qualify?

Respecting a widely acknowledged property right isn't a political stance. Nor is it indoctrination to teach kids to respect other peoples work.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#36

I'm actually impressed at how slanted the title is. Using the words "cartel" and "indoctrinate" hits on two major scare points and we don't even have to read a word of the article. Very tough for me to trust what they have to say since they didn't think the words themselves were convincing enough.

Remember, though, that article titles are often created by sub-editors to be short and pithy, not by the original author of the piece.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#37
post #33
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure that's Australia, right? America started as land of religious zealots.

The people who were here thousands of years before Puritan nutcases started getting dumped here to get them away from the civilized people, would beg to disagree, if they hadn't mostly been genocided away. Thats probably what OP was referencing. America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago. The noob bible thumpers arriving a couple centuries ag…

I'm pretty sure that "America" was being used to refer to the United States, not the entire New World or even the particular portion that the United States happens to sit on.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#38
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who were here thousands of years before Puritan nutcases started getting dumped here to get them away from the civilized people, would beg to disagree, if they hadn't mostly been genocided away. Thats probably what OP was referencing. America started as a bunch of vaguely Asiatic foragers crossed over more or less in Alaska a couple thousand years ago. The noob bible thumpers arriving a couple centuries ag…

I'm pretty sure that "America" was being used to refer to the United States, not the entire New World or even the particular portion that the United States happens to sit on.

[deleted]

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#39
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cartel" seems like a distortion to me, too, but "indoctrinate" seems like a perfectly valid label for the attempt to systematically teach small children to support a political stance. If you wouldn't call that true indoctrination, what would qualify?

Respecting a widely acknowledged property right isn't a political stance. Nor is it indoctrination to teach kids to respect other peoples work.

Respecting a widely acknowledged property right is a political stance when widely acknowledged exceptions to that right are left aside. There's also the controversial subtopic of draconian policing of violations of those rights in recent years.

Copyright is not a topic for small children. Adults are barely grown up enough to discuss it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the also controversial subtopic of expiration and lack thereof.

Re: The copyright cartel's plot to indoctrinate California kindergartens

#40
post #20

From the Grade 1 lesson: [Select two students who are outgoing and will be able to enjoy this activity. Send the students on a quick (30 seconds) errand before they start drawing. Example: “Please run this note to the library.” When the students leave, tell the class you want them to all copy one of the pictures being drawn on the white board. Remind the class to copy the artwork without telling the volunteer artists…

Not as simple as "can't/won't". There's also "not allowed to". If the only purpose of education is to teach to a test, and the board selects the book which was written for the test... it does kinda destroy teacher's individuality, but since that seems to be a goal... Some other examples of rather finely defined lesson plans nearly to the point of reading a teleprompter are "human growth and development" which is fine…

I should have included school boards along with teachers in that broadside. I don't think the 'state as laboratory' idea has worked out well wrt education.
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