MPAA Sues and Gives Away Anti-File-Sharing Software
As part of its "news filter" aggregation covering yesterday's 200 copyright infringement suits filed by the Motion Picture Association of America against movie downloaders, the Washington Post is reorting that the "MPAA is offering a free software tool that people can use to identify and delete all file-sharing programs and illegally copied movie and music files on their computers. The software will not report evidence of illegal content back to the studios, the association said. The tool will be made available at www.respectcopyrights.org, a site run by the MPAA."
1 Comments:
Hi,
I was reading your blog and because you wrote about the MPAA, I decided to write you. For a little background, MPAA and BSA have been inserting distorted and self-interested annti-filesharing curriculum in ailing
and non-ailing schools. We at Downhill Battle decided to fight back.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, CONTACT:
Tiffiniy Cheng, Director - tyc@downhillbattle.org
Phone: 508-963-7832
Music Activism Website Counters BSA and MPAA Anti-filesharing Curriculum in Public Schools
Alternative curriculum launched on collaborative website:www.CopyrightCurriculum.com
(November 15, 2004) - Downhill Battle (downhillbattle.org) announced two websites today to counter school curriculums released by Hollywood
and the Business Software Alliance. The first site --
www.kidssmellbullshit.com features a contest for kids to write a letter or submit a photo about the issue, which will then be sent to BSA and MPAA. The winner will receive an iPod Mini.
The second site - www.copyrightcurriculum.com - is a collaborative effort to write a public-interest curriculum for teachers that want to address these
issues in their classrooms.
The move was to counter private sector and lobbying groups' biased educational tools that are being forced into public schools. Teachers across the country who use the Weekly Reader in their classroom have
been receiving installments of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) curriculum in the magazine since September 1st. In addition, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has hired Junior
Achievement to teach a filesharing curriculum that drastically distorts the legal realities of the history of copyright and peer-to-peer filesharing.
Kidssmellbullshit.com hosts a letter-writing and mash-up photo contest for school-aged children with the goal of sending a youth-based message to the BSA and MPAA about the their thoughts on these new technologies.
Other users are allowed to collaboratively edit, filter and mash-up the curriculum materials using the collaborative wiki system.
"The real problem is that there is no transparency or discourse about these issues that affect kids. This is yet another sneaky way for the non-commodities industries to try to manipulate kids," said Nick
Nassar, the group's lead software developer.
Tiffiniy Cheng, a Director of Downhill Battle said, "There are various ways to fight back using the internet and we think collaborative writing with a wiki is an effective way to balance what BSA and MPAA
are saying. We also recognized that kids are able to spot out when something is fishy. The BSA and MPAA tactics seem like a thinly-veiled fear tactic used by adults to get to kids, and the kids most likely
sense that... hence the name Kids Smell Bullshit."
Holmes Wilson, another Downhill Battle Director, added, "BSA and MPAA are taking the back door to distort the way kids think about the internet, especially in underfunded schools that must seek out free curriculum materials."
Downhill Battle is a music activism web site working to build a better music industry and advocating for fair, legalized filesharing.
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