Yet Darrell Luzzo, senior vice president of Junior Achievement, defends the industry's antipiracy program by saying it's not meant to cover all aspects of copyright law. Rather, the idea is to encourage student debate. ''We are learning ways to enhance classroom discussions."
I don't know, back in the dim and distant past when I were a lad, it was considered harmful to use brainwashing and coercion in education. I guess that's the price you pay for progress though. I hear they're moving onto aversion therapy next - "just put this down your pants lad, no it doesn't matter where, trust us, we know what we're doing..." ZZZAAAPPP
Doesn't this also count as political education - I mean the MPAA/RIAA are making a big deal about buying senators and so on to fight their "cause". You'd have thought they couldn't have their cake and eat it!
Oh well, it's a damn sight better than the UK at the moment anyway, with the mad blind fascist Josef Blunkett attempting to ID all and sundry:-( Think yourselves lucky as they ZZZAAAPPP you...
I don't know, back in the dim and distant past when I were a lad, it was considered harmful to use brainwashing and coercion in education.
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Sunday April 25, 2004 @01:58PM (#8965974)
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
What's weird is that I actually use to believe those words, but now that I'm an adult it's like Santa and the Easter Bunny. What happened? Where did I lose faith and why? Are those corporate liars proud of the fact that they made me doubt those words?
No, you can pledge all you like. But government agents (i.e. teachers) can't lead children in a statement that asserts the existence of God. There are gray areas of the establishment clause, but this one isn't even close.
The "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" with Tripoli, written duing the Washington administration, states that "the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
To Christians, it's illogical to say that the pledge is unconstitutional for saying a fact (that God exists).
To an atheist, it's clearly unconstitutional to have the state push people to make a clearly untrue statement (that God exists).
Fortunately, we have a constitution that makes it clear that it is not the state's job to judge the truth or falsity of the proposition "God exists". Unfortunately we have a surplus of Christian nutcases who are incapable of accepting the plain text of the First Amendment.
To Christians, it's illogical to say that the pledge is unconstitutional for saying a fact (that God exists).
That God exists isn't a fact to anyone - not even Christians. It is a belief to them. That's the whole point of any religion. If it were a fact and not a belief then it would be a science and not a religion, and you woulndn't need faith to believe it.
No, you have the Republicans to thank, since they are the ones who allowed the "under God" reference to be added in 1954. Congress passed it [vineyard.net], but
Eisenhower [whitehouse.gov] should have vetoed it. Since try, thank you for trolling.
No it's not. The 9th Circuit ruled the "under God" bit unconstitutional, but even that's been stayed until the Supreme Court makes its decision. The only thing unconstitutional is forcing people to say it.
Score:-1, Conservative
Please don't tarnish conservatives by associating with us.
No it's not. The 9th Circuit ruled the "under God" bit unconstitutional, but even that's been stayed until the Supreme Court makes its decision. The only thing unconstitutional is forcing people to say it.
I think there's more to it than that. I believe that Congress violated the constitution when they passed the law that made "under God" official. So, while individuals are certainly free to say it, the law that establishes it as an official oath remains unconstitutional even if no one is forced to say it.
The first amendment states in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free practice thereof,". I think it's pretty clear that "respecting an establishment of religion" was exactly what Congress intended. This becomes especially clear when you put it in its historical context. This was the time of the "red scare". Communism was the demon of the day. The characteristic that (predominantly Christian) Americans most despised about communism was its official adoption of Atheism. In reaction to that, and to gain political favor at home, Congress made several moves to officially distance the US from the "godlessness" of communism. Freedom of religion is something the US already had (at least officially), so there was nothing to be gained by pushing neutrality or freedom. What the politicians needed in order to win votes was to take a decidedly pro-religious stance, and to favor mainstream religion as much as they could get away with, constitution be damned. "In God We Trust" on the money was another facet of this same effort.
Some will argue that these are OK because they don't specify which god. But seriously, who really believes that Congress intended anything other than the Judeo-Christian God? And how many gods are actually named "God"? (Note the capitalization in the Pledge of Allegiance) To put it in perspective, "one nation under gods" doesn't specify which gods, and "one nation under goddess" doesn't specify which goddess. So by the same argument those should also be considered neutral and clear of any First Amendment complications. Right? Somehow I suspect that the people who are defending the "God" addenda are the ones who would howl the loudest if either of those phrases were in the Pledge. And they should howl about it because those are clearly biased against monotheistic and patriarchal religions, and also against atheism, agnosticism, and just simple non-religiousness. It's just that if they could see past their own religious bias they would be howling about it now because of the clear bias against polytheistic religions, matriarchal religions, atheism, etc. That "In God We Trust" and "under God" deprecate the views of those who do not believe in any gods is particularly hard to counter since it's pretty obvious from the historical context that this is exactly what they were intended to do.
So, regardless of any court's ruling, it is as clear as the nose on your face that the presence of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance as well as "In God We Trust" on the currency is now and has always been unconstitutional.
I believe the only reason these continue to be is that they are political land mines that can blow up in the face of any politician who dares to try to set it right, or even just to speak the truth about it.
This is why there can be no honest politicians. As long as the majority of the populace is unable to be honest even with themselves and put truth above popularity, no honest man can ever be elected.
No, my my Ann Coulter fantasy involves her pulling a cart up and down 14th Street in DC while naked and with a horse-tail butt-plug stuffed up her ass as I whip her with a cat-o-nine-tails.
It isn't political because the program is simply teaching people what the law is.
No. From the article: "Students learn to repeat the program's motto: 'If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it.'" That's just wrong for too many reasons to count.
But I'd bet that it's illegal to lie to students about what the law is. How much do you want to bet that the MPAA flack has a, shall we say, self-interested opinion about the breadth of fair use rights that conflicts with the holdings of the Betamax case?
Actually this would only effect really dumb sheep-like teens.
The smarter ones; 1. Will see the $ advantages of downloading stuff. 2. Will question what teachers feed them ("Is it stealing?" or "Is this worse than speeding like everyone does?" or "Don't we have something better to do?") 3. Will just do it for the cash and prizes but not really believe in it. 4. Will just see through corporate crap and start to make fun of it. 5. Will look at the arguments against stealing from the pockets of artists and ask themselves "Does this person look like he/she is hurting?"
What the hell? They're going to just start exploiting schools in order to dump their brainwashing propaganda on young people? Does anyone else think this is completely ridiculous?
Sure, they would be talking about something which is illegal, but that doesn't make this right. The children and parents should have time to discuss things like this and make their own decisions, without being misguided by the people who want to make money.
Actually, they're brainwashing kids into thinking that things which aren't illegal actually are (fair use). Read the article.
Actually, they're brainwashing kids into thinking that things which aren't illegal actually are (fair use).
Yup, and this is why it is so frightening. If all you know about rights is what some corporation tells you, if you don't know what your rights actually are, then do they even exist? Not for you they don't.
Your kids are being fed to corporate interests, who are trying to prevent them from really understanding what rights they have. This here is an actual threat to liberty. When does the bombing campaign start?
This is no longer outrageous. You can try it too if you have the money. The society no longer thinks this is ridiculous, they think it's alright, because the corporation is doing it (technically MPAA is not a corporation, but you get my point). Want to promote genetic engineering and stem cell therapy - fund some biology lessons. Want to oppose genetic engineering and stem cell therapy - fund some biology lessons. All you need is money. And political power (just in case), which can be bought rather cheaply.
What the USA needs is a bunch of revolutionaries (soon to be branded terrorists), who would compensate their lack of money with personal energy and motivation. Kind of another King. EFF is not adequate to the threat, they are too soft. Someone should start a militant wing of EFF, with bombs, assassinations, self-immolations and stuff. This isn't some radical idea - everyone is doing it (IRA, Al Quaeda, etc.) - a front (party, organisation) for legitimate action and a group of fighters.
- Sir, have a look at this comment from "danila". - Oh dear. I see here that he gained three watchlist points just last week. For this we have to give him, hm.. say five additional points. - 75 points, that just tipped him over the scale for manual phone monitoring, sir. Do you really think that is called for? The sampled transcripts from his previous calls and letters... - Now, now, lad. We can't be too careful these days. Before we know it we might have him sitting in a clock tower with a rifle.
Outrageous? No, I think it's funny. I already can see this happening: MPAA/RIAA henchman spends 2 houres trying to brainwash the kids. "Any questions?" he asks. One of the students raises his hand and asks: "What was the URL of that Kazaa-program again?"
This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to just rant and rant. I will, however, try to restrain myself.
The most important question here, in my view, is this: Why the hell are corporations and 'business groups' teaching classes to kids anyway? Well, obviously because they see an advantage in it. So let me rephrase that: Why the hell are they allowed to do this? This is basically nothing more than advertising delivered directly at the kids, and hey, get this: They can't ignore it, because it's happening in their school, which they are legally required to attend!
There is something fundamentally wrong when publically funded, mandatory education is subsidized by private corporations in order to spread their own agendas. And 'best' of all, it's usually the poorest schools that end up simply needing to do something like this, just to afford basic necessities.
Allright, so this has probably been a rant. But it needed to be said. Just one more thing: Just how is this class learning? How can anything so biased, so value-laden, be classified as learning? I for one, am obviously a little to unimaginative to see that...
Is it just me who is sickened by the use of middle school students? You can't claim it's part of a broad legal education such as most citizens should have; they're not teaching them about anything but media piracy. And why would any school allow a special interest like that to "educate" middle school children?
When I went through school DARE was just getting started. Everybody was jumping behind it as a way to target kids right in the classroom early-on and say "Don't do drugs." However, DARE has been an awesome failure. Some of the buggest potheads that I know sat right next to me in those classes, parroting the lines that "Officer Jim" told us.
I believe that this program will have similar results; Little Suzie says "I'll never download, that's bad" at school then goes home and gets the whole new Britney Spears album because, ya know, it's free!
Also, this part is particularly interesting:
The ''fair use" doctrine allows the public to use copyrighted material for educational purposes. One can use another's work to parody, review, or critique that material. You can even legally swap material, as long as it's not for commercial gain, said Seltzer. ''People tape movies on their VCRs and swap it with friends without getting arrested for piracy," she said.
so, by that logic, all P2P is legal. I'm not getting any commercial by sharing files out, nor are the people that I download from. What's the diff in having 3 friends that swap movies off HBO or 3 Billion friends swapping some AC/DC albums?
Programs like this target the mediocre kids. Smart kids just don't fall for this crap. Dumb kids happily say "I'll never download illegal stuff" and then go and download stuff because the whole concept never connects for them. Just because there are large groups of kids for which this program will fail miserably does not mean the program will not have a notable effect on a decent percentage.
I wouldn't be too quick to say that this sort of thing will fail - programs like this can work remarkably well on a resonably large percentage.
Just look at how well fnord other schemes fnord have fnord worked.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:00PM (#8965987)
at my school.. the cop from DARE passed around 3 joints to show everyone... and he said "if i dont get all three of these back this schools getting locked down and everyones getting searched till i find it.." and like 30 minutes later when everyone got to see 'em and they got passed back the cop had 4
The real test of DARE's effectiveness is the difference in drug use between schools using the program and schools not using the program. The only real data on this that I know of shows that DARE is not effective [ndsn.org].
I sat through DARE. As someone who has NEVER used illegal drugs, (though plenty of my friends did), I thought it was a waste of time. My friends did too, though for a different reason.
The truth is simple: if you aren't into drugs, chances are you think "who cares, I don't do em anyways" and if you are you think, "that moron doesn't know jack!"
Personally, I think it's fallacious to think that these programs have that much influence when presented to large groups.
If you want to change someones attitude about something, small (2-4) groups work best. It is also best to have a peer do the talking, not some cop.
The same applies to the MPAA. If they want to change kids attitudes, they have to get kids who care, and are considered cool by the target group.
This is hard, because those mostly likely to get movies are not likely to think anyone who is against it is cool without some serious groundwork.
"The success is measured in how many kids did learn from it."
A *LOT* of kids learned from DARE. They just didn't learn the lesson their teachers and the police expected. The course may be diffrent now, but back when I was an elementary and middle-school student (10-15 years ago), the emphasis was on shocking the kids into obedience, not giving them real information. The first lesson we learned was that drugs will mess you up, destroy your life, and eventually kill you. Then we had friends who smoked a little weed and didn't get addicted, messed up, or killed. Then we learned the real lesson of DARE: Our teachers, our school principals, the police, Nancy Reagan, and that girl on TV with the frying pan lied to us all through our childhood.
Kids are some of the sneakiest people alive. (This is not open for debate. We were all kids once.)
Even little ones are all over music/movie piracy. They already know the thrill of getting something for free rather than asking your parents to buy it.
That thrill and the associated material benefit far outweighs anything the RIAA/MPAA or teachers can do to endorse a strict policy of legal distribution.
Kids are some of the sneakiest people alive. (This is not open for debate. We were all kids once.)
This is open for debate. Just because you were a sneaky kid doesn't mean that I was.
When I was a teen, there were always those adults who were hell-raisers when they were my age. They'd look at me with a 'knowing' eye and tell me that I couldn't fool them, they were a kid once.
I didn't like it then, and now, that I'm an adult, I still don't like it.
I didn't drink, smoke, or do drugs as a teen. I didn't lie to my parents or steal. I had good grades, and obeyed the law.
Stereotypes are bad, no matter who they are applied to.
As someone who lived basically the same life, I have one word for you: BOOOOOOOOO-RIIIIIIIIIIIING!
I spent my whole childhood thinking that rules were there for a reason. Rules were there to protect us, to keep us safe from terrible dangers, and to keep us working towards becoming the best people we could possibly be. To me, rule-breakers were slime. They were worse than slime. They were violating the Great Social Contract that kept everyone from setting fire to old ladies and blowing up kittens.
After high school, I joined the Army. Learning a whole new and intricate set of rules was an interesting experience. I followed the rules dutifully, but ninety percent of the rules governing soldiers in Basic Training are there solely for the purpose of teaching the soldiers to obey without questioning. The need for that obedience is understandable in some situations. The military is just one of those places where sometimes lives depend on swift, coordinated action.
But in the end, I realized that sometimes the rules were wrong, arbitrary, self-serving, or simply lacking in coherence. Sometimes the process by which the rules are made exhibits the same flaws. Enforcement was either non-existent or arbitrary, and breaking them was more than merely harmless; sometimes it was the only way to get things done.
About the same time, I was becoming aware of the effects of being raised in an extremely rule-oriented religion.
Unquestioning obedience is fine for four year olds. But as soon as possible, kids need to be given explanations for the rules, to the best of their ability to understand. If they don't learn the difference between good rules* and bad rules**, then we're all doomed. The whole democracy thing doesn't work if everyone just does what they're told.
I worry almost as much for the kids who follow the rules compulsively, and are afraid to do anything without explicit permission, as I do for the ones who go around vandalizing and stealing out of boredom. I like the kids who creatively push the limits, game the system, and question those who wield power over them. Especially if they show some level of judgment about the actions that will do real damage, as opposed to the ones that merely make things more interesting.
* Don't set fire to old ladies. Never give your passwords out.
** You must request permission to go to the bathroom, and be back in precisely three minutes.
What we have here is a collision of the educational realm, where "content" needs to be "distributed" to students with maximum learning, and the entertainment realm, where content needs to be distributed to consumers with maximum profit.
What they need is a presentation on how to create content that can be legally shared (history of GNU, Creative Commons, and so on).
Yet Darrell Luzzo, senior vice president of Junior Achievement, defends the industry's antipiracy program by saying it's not meant to cover all aspects of copyright law.
Of course it doesn't cover all aspects of copyright law. They seem to have forgotten about section 107 (fair use).
I propose that this will be as effective as the war on drugs. Sure, some kids will write their essays, get some free stuff, and the salespeople, uh, I mean, volunteer educators, will feel as if they did a good job.
But consider the following:
1. Low income children do not have the access to computers and network connections that more well-to-do children have. I doubt, therefore, that they're reaching their target audience.
2. What's more effective at influencing behavior, some JA instructor or your cool friends giving you a copy of the latest hit song/album that they ripped off the net?
3. One sided propaganda campaigns may make people feel good, but they gloss over serious issues (ie, copyright, fair use, etc) and end up breeding a ridiculous environment in which people claim to want such rules and laws yet break them anyway.
All of this sounds a lot like the war on drugs. We have our "just say no" campaigns in schools, celebrities tell us to stay off the drugs, and we make all these claims about how bad drugs are for you while ignoring or outright suppressing the truth about their effects as we trample civil liberties. And just how effective is that?
Technically you're quite correct. But what annoys me (and, I suspect, many Slashdotters) is the following:
1. Mass-produced CDs have a unit cost of a couple of pence/cents. 2. Many musicians never get signed to a major label, and thus never get any of their music in stores or on the radio. 3. The musicians who are signed to a major label are sidelined by whatever the label thinks will sell - eg. Britney Spears. 4. The label charges the artist for the privilege of advertising & distribution. So much so that in order to make $1,000,000 the artist may have to pay various suits $900,000. 5. The Internet eliminates parts 2-4 - if you want to ensure everything's fair, a bunch of artists could easily set up some sort of a "co-operative" to market their songs over the web, charging a nominal fee for the song and giving most of it for the artist, only keeping a relatively small amount back for bandwidth and system maintenance. The only reason this hasn't happened more is the dot-com boom has taught us that such things are very difficult to market successfully. 6. The RIAA is well aware of point 5. If it actually takes off, their entire business model evaporates. 7. The RIAA is therefore doing everything in their power to prevent this from happening. Brainwashing people that "MP3s are Evil!" is vital to this.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Sunday April 25, 2004 @02:00PM (#8965993)
I think that one of the problems with this sort of thing (referencing mainly from drugs are bad things) is that just just block it out. Its like advertising- im not saying adverts never effect me, but the average person sees what, several hundred adverts a day? 99% of them they just ignore.
I remember one time in high school (several years ago) we had a policeman come in to talk to us about drugs. He actually talked to us sensibly, rather than enforcing a "drugs are evil and if you use them youll go to hell" idea.
I cant rememeber most of it, but I do remember 2 things he said: (which is pretty impressive)
a) if you want to do drugs, fine. Do NOT do heroin and cocaine. They will fuck you up. b) Dont inhale sprays. Some girl sprayed aerosol directly into the back of her throat, and the cold caused her throat to contract and she suffocated.
So there you go. Teaching kids the IMPORTANT things, rather than blanket bombing everything you dont like.
School Principal: Well, it's been four weeks and I'd say we've done a stellar job of making Ultra Cola available to our students.
Marketdriod: Well, you might say so, and I'm sure I'd agree with you but unfortunately that won't hold up in court.
School Principal: Huh?
Marketdriod: The idea wasn't making the product available to the students. It was making the students available to the product. The Ultra Cola people say your sales aren't what they should be. You do want to make your quotas, don't you? Or the school won't get that nice big check.
The schools aren't making a lesson available to the kids. The schools are making the kids available to the lesson.
MPAA, is that the organization which represents the movie studios that are constantly copying the plots etc. of each other? The "let's make a James Bond movie with Vin Diesel and call it XxX" guys?
Bah.
What next, will they have NAMBLA come and tell the kids their interpretation of age-of-consent laws? How about letting the KKK educate the kids about how laws regarding blacks should be?
The students played roles such as ''The Film Producer," ''The Starving Artist," and were asked questions such as ''Has anyone ever copied your homework? How did this make you feel?"
Do they have one kid dress up in a suit, steal everyone's money, and drive away in a Porsche? Because we need a Jack Valenti.
And in 2 generations its heresy to say it used to be round..
The MPAA isn't the only organization doing this. So much of our history and future concepts of right and wrong are being perverted by teachings to the children.
They are in it for the long haul.. and we must all be always diligent to teach our children the real truth..
As a schoolchild of the sixties I can assure you "brainwashing" is nothing new at all.
Anyway, I don't see anything new here at all. Yeah, there's way too much corporate influence in the classroom - so let's talk about all those schools that have replaced milk machines and cafeteria lines with soda and sandwich vending machines and made the Nike swoosh part of their campus decor.
When I was in the sixth grade I was grounded from recesses for weeks because I started a petition for longer recesses. an innocent bit of play snowballed within a day and soon there were dozens of handwritten copies of my petition circulating in classrooms. When they found out it was me who started it, rather than take the opportunity to demonstrate real world governenace, I instead got a lecture and made to write something stupid like "I will not create disturbances in class." Which, ironically, means I really did get a lesson in the real world - unfortunately, not the real world as we had been told in the classroom (petitioning the government, speaking out, etc). Obviously this real lesson had a lasting effect on me, as I still can't remember what it was I was supposed to write but the message sent still rings clear 30 years later: don't try to buck the man or you'll get stepped upon.
This program is certain to spawn a new generation of adults with similar memories. Indoctrination of this sort is doomed to fail as soon as the child begins to realize she can think for herself.
Now, getting back to those school lunches and corporate sports programs...
I have this horrifically produced avi on CD where the SPA (? the software equivalent to RIAA/MPAA) made a moral parable hip hop rap "don't copy that floppy" so kids in school wouldn't copy oregon trail (or the like) and play it at home...
very amusing.. almost as amusing as those clips mpaa sponsored theatrical trailers where the set designers try to say how piracy hurts them the little guy...
*Shrug* I should divx that and put it up somewhere... (they actualy give you permission to redistribute THAT PSA turd ironically enough...)
In the past year, the Motion Picture Association of America has spent approximately $200,000 to launch its program called ''What's The Diff?" to combat digital piracy. Despite the criticism, the trade group plans to continue the program next school year.
What about actually teaching these kids usable skills in school? Math? English?
Upon further reading, I realized that they did teach the kids a usable skill...
Many children in the class indicated they had never downloaded anything before...
The volunteer and the teacher worked from a 25-page classroom guide to explain the concept of using a computer to download files, which they called ''morally and ethically wrong."
They tought a room full of kids who have never downloaded anything how to pirate. The even used a manual. Leave it to the entertainment industry to teach what they are trying to control.
Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know, back in the dim and distant past when I were a lad, it was considered harmful to use brainwashing and coercion in education. I guess that's the price you pay for progress though. I hear they're moving onto aversion therapy next - "just put this down your pants lad, no it doesn't matter where, trust us, we know what we're doing..." ZZZAAAPPP
Doesn't this also count as political education - I mean the MPAA/RIAA are making a big deal about buying senators and so on to fight their "cause". You'd have thought they couldn't have their cake and eat it!
Oh well, it's a damn sight better than the UK at the moment anyway, with the mad blind fascist Josef Blunkett attempting to ID all and sundry
Simon
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
What's weird is that I actually use to believe those words, but now that I'm an adult it's like Santa and the Easter Bunny. What happened? Where did I lose faith and why? Are those corporate liars proud of the fact that they made me doubt those words?
Say it again... slowly... with feeling.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Informative)
No, you can pledge all you like. But government agents (i.e. teachers) can't lead children in a statement that asserts the existence of God. There are gray areas of the establishment clause, but this one isn't even close.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:4, Informative)
Commie. [religioustolerance.org]
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Informative)
Many of the "Founding Fathers" - Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Paine, Franklin, and Madison, to name a few - were Deists, Unitarians, or in some other way explictly disagreed with Christian dogma. [ffrf.org]
The "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" with Tripoli, written duing the Washington administration, states that "the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
To an atheist, it's clearly unconstitutional to have the state push people to make a clearly untrue statement (that God exists).
Fortunately, we have a constitution that makes it clear that it is not the state's job to judge the truth or falsity of the proposition "God exists". Unfortunately we have a surplus of Christian nutcases who are incapable of accepting the plain text of the First Amendment.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
That God exists isn't a fact to anyone - not even Christians. It is a belief to them. That's the whole point of any religion. If it were a fact and not a belief then it would be a science and not a religion, and you woulndn't need faith to believe it.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, you have the Republicans to thank, since they are the ones who allowed the "under God" reference to be added in 1954. Congress passed it [vineyard.net], but Eisenhower [whitehouse.gov] should have vetoed it. Since try, thank you for trolling.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Informative)
No it's not. The 9th Circuit ruled the "under God" bit unconstitutional, but even that's been stayed until the Supreme Court makes its decision. The only thing unconstitutional is forcing people to say it.
Score:-1, Conservative
Please don't tarnish conservatives by associating with us.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:4, Insightful)
The first amendment states in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free practice thereof,". I think it's pretty clear that "respecting an establishment of religion" was exactly what Congress intended. This becomes especially clear when you put it in its historical context. This was the time of the "red scare". Communism was the demon of the day. The characteristic that (predominantly Christian) Americans most despised about communism was its official adoption of Atheism. In reaction to that, and to gain political favor at home, Congress made several moves to officially distance the US from the "godlessness" of communism. Freedom of religion is something the US already had (at least officially), so there was nothing to be gained by pushing neutrality or freedom. What the politicians needed in order to win votes was to take a decidedly pro-religious stance, and to favor mainstream religion as much as they could get away with, constitution be damned. "In God We Trust" on the money was another facet of this same effort.
Some will argue that these are OK because they don't specify which god. But seriously, who really believes that Congress intended anything other than the Judeo-Christian God? And how many gods are actually named "God"? (Note the capitalization in the Pledge of Allegiance) To put it in perspective, "one nation under gods" doesn't specify which gods, and "one nation under goddess" doesn't specify which goddess. So by the same argument those should also be considered neutral and clear of any First Amendment complications. Right? Somehow I suspect that the people who are defending the "God" addenda are the ones who would howl the loudest if either of those phrases were in the Pledge. And they should howl about it because those are clearly biased against monotheistic and patriarchal religions, and also against atheism, agnosticism, and just simple non-religiousness. It's just that if they could see past their own religious bias they would be howling about it now because of the clear bias against polytheistic religions, matriarchal religions, atheism, etc. That "In God We Trust" and "under God" deprecate the views of those who do not believe in any gods is particularly hard to counter since it's pretty obvious from the historical context that this is exactly what they were intended to do.
So, regardless of any court's ruling, it is as clear as the nose on your face that the presence of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance as well as "In God We Trust" on the currency is now and has always been unconstitutional.
I believe the only reason these continue to be is that they are political land mines that can blow up in the face of any politician who dares to try to set it right, or even just to speak the truth about it.
This is why there can be no honest politicians. As long as the majority of the populace is unable to be honest even with themselves and put truth above popularity, no honest man can ever be elected.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Funny)
But I'm just weird like that.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:4, Funny)
And I always thought it was, "and to the Republic for Richard Stanz".
You learn something new everyday on Slashdot.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:5, Insightful)
No. From the article: "Students learn to repeat the program's motto: 'If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it.'" That's just wrong for too many reasons to count.
Re:Onwards and upwards... (Score:4, Interesting)
In the words of Pink Floyd (Score:5, Interesting)
"We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control"
Re:In the words of Pink Floyd (Score:5, Funny)
"We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control"
Yeah, I just downloaded that one. It's really cool.
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Interesting)
The smarter ones;
1. Will see the $ advantages of downloading stuff.
2. Will question what teachers feed them ("Is it stealing?" or "Is this worse than speeding like everyone does?" or "Don't we have something better to do?")
3. Will just do it for the cash and prizes but not really believe in it.
4. Will just see through corporate crap and start to make fun of it.
5. Will look at the arguments against stealing from the pockets of artists and ask themselves "Does this person look like he/she is hurting?"
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they're brainwashing kids into thinking that things which aren't illegal actually are (fair use). Read the article.
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup, and this is why it is so frightening. If all you know about rights is what some corporation tells you, if you don't know what your rights actually are, then do they even exist? Not for you they don't.
Your kids are being fed to corporate interests, who are trying to prevent them from really understanding what rights they have. This here is an actual threat to liberty. When does the bombing campaign start?
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Interesting)
What the USA needs is a bunch of revolutionaries (soon to be branded terrorists), who would compensate their lack of money with personal energy and motivation. Kind of another King. EFF is not adequate to the threat, they are too soft. Someone should start a militant wing of EFF, with bombs, assassinations, self-immolations and stuff. This isn't some radical idea - everyone is doing it (IRA, Al Quaeda, etc.) - a front (party, organisation) for legitimate action and a group of fighters.
Re:Outrageous (Score:5, Insightful)
- Oh dear. I see here that he gained three watchlist points just last week. For this we have to give him, hm.. say five additional points.
- 75 points, that just tipped him over the scale for manual phone monitoring, sir. Do you really think that is called for? The sampled transcripts from his previous calls and letters...
- Now, now, lad. We can't be too careful these days. Before we know it we might have him sitting in a clock tower with a rifle.
Re:Outrageous (Score:4, Funny)
The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:4, Insightful)
That is so incredibly wrong I don't even know where to start.
Have I stolen the contents of the Harddrive on my linux box?
Have I stolen the concerts I downloaded from etree?
Have I stolen the toys I picked up at the last trade show I went to?
And the worst part is that young kids are really prone to being manipulated and indocternated.
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Funny)
> ''If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it."
Ahem, if I *tried* to pay my gf for sex she'd more more than a little P.O.ed.
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Informative)
"Students learn to repeat the program's motto: ''If you don't pay for it, you've stolen it."
That is so incredibly wrong I don't even know where to start.
Don't forget: "...students are asked to write an essay 'to get the word out that downloading copyrighted entertainment is illegal and unethical,'"
Its so easy to find an example [machinaesupremacy.com] of copyrighted music free for download that isn't illegal.
If they had this program when I went to school, I'd probably have been suspended for subversion.
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Insightful)
- What if somebody gives you something?
- Are we stealing slashdot bandwidth and diskspace by posting here?
- Did anybody steal the sunshine on their faces, or the air they breathe?
- And, are the kids paying for this MPAA-sponsored class?
Re:The smell of misinformation in the morning (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the kind of stuff that makes me want to just rant and rant. I will, however, try to restrain myself.
The most important question here, in my view, is this: Why the hell are corporations and 'business groups' teaching classes to kids anyway? Well, obviously because they see an advantage in it. So let me rephrase that: Why the hell are they allowed to do this? This is basically nothing more than advertising delivered directly at the kids, and hey, get this: They can't ignore it, because it's happening in their school, which they are legally required to attend!
There is something fundamentally wrong when publically funded, mandatory education is subsidized by private corporations in order to spread their own agendas. And 'best' of all, it's usually the poorest schools that end up simply needing to do something like this, just to afford basic necessities.
Allright, so this has probably been a rant. But it needed to be said. Just one more thing: Just how is this class learning? How can anything so biased, so value-laden, be classified as learning? I for one, am obviously a little to unimaginative to see that ...
Using children? (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like DARE! (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe that this program will have similar results; Little Suzie says "I'll never download, that's bad" at school then goes home and gets the whole new Britney Spears album because, ya know, it's free!
Also, this part is particularly interesting:
The ''fair use" doctrine allows the public to use copyrighted material for educational purposes. One can use another's work to parody, review, or critique that material. You can even legally swap material, as long as it's not for commercial gain, said Seltzer. ''People tape movies on their VCRs and swap it with friends without getting arrested for piracy," she said.
so, by that logic, all P2P is legal. I'm not getting any commercial by sharing files out, nor are the people that I download from. What's the diff in having 3 friends that swap movies off HBO or 3 Billion friends swapping some AC/DC albums?
Re:Just like DARE! (Score:4, Insightful)
I wouldn't be too quick to say that this sort of thing will fail - programs like this can work remarkably well on a resonably large percentage.
Just look at how well fnord other schemes fnord have fnord worked.
Jedidiah.
Re:Just like DARE! (Score:5, Funny)
--www.bash.org
oh, about... (Score:5, Funny)
2,999,999,997 people.
*snicker*
Re:Just like DARE! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Just like DARE! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Just like DARE! (Score:5, Insightful)
I sat through DARE. As someone who has NEVER used illegal drugs, (though plenty of my friends did), I thought it was a waste of time. My friends did too, though for a different reason.
The truth is simple: if you aren't into drugs, chances are you think "who cares, I don't do em anyways" and if you are you think, "that moron doesn't know jack!"
Personally, I think it's fallacious to think that these programs have that much influence when presented to large groups.
If you want to change someones attitude about something, small (2-4) groups work best. It is also best to have a peer do the talking, not some cop.
The same applies to the MPAA. If they want to change kids attitudes, they have to get kids who care, and are considered cool by the target group.
This is hard, because those mostly likely to get movies are not likely to think anyone who is against it is cool without some serious groundwork.
DARE is a crock... (Score:4, Insightful)
A *LOT* of kids learned from DARE. They just didn't learn the lesson their teachers and the police expected. The course may be diffrent now, but back when I was an elementary and middle-school student (10-15 years ago), the emphasis was on shocking the kids into obedience, not giving them real information. The first lesson we learned was that drugs will mess you up, destroy your life, and eventually kill you. Then we had friends who smoked a little weed and didn't get addicted, messed up, or killed. Then we learned the real lesson of DARE: Our teachers, our school principals, the police, Nancy Reagan, and that girl on TV with the frying pan lied to us all through our childhood.
*ahem* Yeah, whatever. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even little ones are all over music/movie piracy. They already know the thrill of getting something for free rather than asking your parents to buy it.
That thrill and the associated material benefit far outweighs anything the RIAA/MPAA or teachers can do to endorse a strict policy of legal distribution.
Re:*ahem* Yeah, whatever. (Score:4, Interesting)
Kids are some of the sneakiest people alive. (This is not open for debate. We were all kids once.)
This is open for debate. Just because you were a sneaky kid doesn't mean that I was.
When I was a teen, there were always those adults who were hell-raisers when they were my age. They'd look at me with a 'knowing' eye and tell me that I couldn't fool them, they were a kid once.
I didn't like it then, and now, that I'm an adult, I still don't like it.
I didn't drink, smoke, or do drugs as a teen. I didn't lie to my parents or steal. I had good grades, and obeyed the law.
Stereotypes are bad, no matter who they are applied to.
Re:*ahem* Yeah, whatever. (Score:5, Insightful)
I spent my whole childhood thinking that rules were there for a reason. Rules were there to protect us, to keep us safe from terrible dangers, and to keep us working towards becoming the best people we could possibly be. To me, rule-breakers were slime. They were worse than slime. They were violating the Great Social Contract that kept everyone from setting fire to old ladies and blowing up kittens.
After high school, I joined the Army. Learning a whole new and intricate set of rules was an interesting experience. I followed the rules dutifully, but ninety percent of the rules governing soldiers in Basic Training are there solely for the purpose of teaching the soldiers to obey without questioning. The need for that obedience is understandable in some situations. The military is just one of those places where sometimes lives depend on swift, coordinated action.
But in the end, I realized that sometimes the rules were wrong, arbitrary, self-serving, or simply lacking in coherence. Sometimes the process by which the rules are made exhibits the same flaws. Enforcement was either non-existent or arbitrary, and breaking them was more than merely harmless; sometimes it was the only way to get things done.
About the same time, I was becoming aware of the effects of being raised in an extremely rule-oriented religion.
Unquestioning obedience is fine for four year olds. But as soon as possible, kids need to be given explanations for the rules, to the best of their ability to understand. If they don't learn the difference between good rules* and bad rules**, then we're all doomed. The whole democracy thing doesn't work if everyone just does what they're told.
I worry almost as much for the kids who follow the rules compulsively, and are afraid to do anything without explicit permission, as I do for the ones who go around vandalizing and stealing out of boredom. I like the kids who creatively push the limits, game the system, and question those who wield power over them. Especially if they show some level of judgment about the actions that will do real damage, as opposed to the ones that merely make things more interesting.
* Don't set fire to old ladies. Never give your passwords out.
** You must request permission to go to the bathroom, and be back in precisely three minutes.
Hmmm.... (Score:5, Funny)
Orwell is teh r0x0rz.
Collision of worldviews (Score:5, Insightful)
What they need is a presentation on how to create content that can be legally shared (history of GNU, Creative Commons, and so on).
There is no MPAA version of copyright law (Score:4, Insightful)
What's missing... (section 107) (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course it doesn't cover all aspects of copyright law. They seem to have forgotten about section 107 (fair use).
It'll be as effective as the war on drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
But consider the following:
1. Low income children do not have the access to computers and network connections that more well-to-do children have. I doubt, therefore, that they're reaching their target audience.
2. What's more effective at influencing behavior, some JA instructor or your cool friends giving you a copy of the latest hit song/album that they ripped off the net?
3. One sided propaganda campaigns may make people feel good, but they gloss over serious issues (ie, copyright, fair use, etc) and end up breeding a ridiculous environment in which people claim to want such rules and laws yet break them anyway.
All of this sounds a lot like the war on drugs. We have our "just say no" campaigns in schools, celebrities tell us to stay off the drugs, and we make all these claims about how bad drugs are for you while ignoring or outright suppressing the truth about their effects as we trample civil liberties. And just how effective is that?
Re:Honestly... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Mass-produced CDs have a unit cost of a couple of pence/cents.
2. Many musicians never get signed to a major label, and thus never get any of their music in stores or on the radio.
3. The musicians who are signed to a major label are sidelined by whatever the label thinks will sell - eg. Britney Spears.
4. The label charges the artist for the privilege of advertising & distribution. So much so that in order to make $1,000,000 the artist may have to pay various suits $900,000.
5. The Internet eliminates parts 2-4 - if you want to ensure everything's fair, a bunch of artists could easily set up some sort of a "co-operative" to market their songs over the web, charging a nominal fee for the song and giving most of it for the artist, only keeping a relatively small amount back for bandwidth and system maintenance. The only reason this hasn't happened more is the dot-com boom has taught us that such things are very difficult to market successfully.
6. The RIAA is well aware of point 5. If it actually takes off, their entire business model evaporates.
7. The RIAA is therefore doing everything in their power to prevent this from happening. Brainwashing people that "MP3s are Evil!" is vital to this.
Effective teaching (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember one time in high school (several years ago) we had a policeman come in to talk to us about drugs. He actually talked to us sensibly, rather than enforcing a "drugs are evil and if you use them youll go to hell" idea.
I cant rememeber most of it, but I do remember 2 things he said: (which is pretty impressive)
a) if you want to do drugs, fine. Do NOT do heroin and cocaine. They will fuck you up.
b) Dont inhale sprays. Some girl sprayed aerosol directly into the back of her throat, and the cold caused her throat to contract and she suffocated.
So there you go. Teaching kids the IMPORTANT things, rather than blanket bombing everything you dont like.
Daria-ism (Score:5, Insightful)
Marketdriod: Well, you might say so, and I'm sure I'd agree with you but unfortunately that won't hold up in court.
School Principal: Huh?
Marketdriod: The idea wasn't making the product available to the students. It was making the students available to the product. The Ultra Cola people say your sales aren't what they should be. You do want to make your quotas, don't you? Or the school won't get that nice big check.
The schools aren't making a lesson available to the kids.
The schools are making the kids available to the lesson.
-
What "great examples" to get into school... (Score:5, Interesting)
Bah.
What next, will they have NAMBLA come and tell the kids their interpretation of age-of-consent laws? How about letting the KKK educate the kids about how laws regarding blacks should be?
Role-playing (Score:5, Funny)
Do they have one kid dress up in a suit, steal everyone's money, and drive away in a Porsche? Because we need a Jack Valenti.
--
As the man said... (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to disagree...
Convice one generation the world is flat.. (Score:4, Insightful)
Leave your comments.... (Score:4, Informative)
"Tell what you liked, didn't like, would like to see more or less of, whatever is on your mind."
Guestbook here [ja.org].
Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyway, I don't see anything new here at all. Yeah, there's way too much corporate influence in the classroom - so let's talk about all those schools that have replaced milk machines and cafeteria lines with soda and sandwich vending machines and made the Nike swoosh part of their campus decor.
When I was in the sixth grade I was grounded from recesses for weeks because I started a petition for longer recesses. an innocent bit of play snowballed within a day and soon there were dozens of handwritten copies of my petition circulating in classrooms. When they found out it was me who started it, rather than take the opportunity to demonstrate real world governenace, I instead got a lecture and made to write something stupid like "I will not create disturbances in class." Which, ironically, means I really did get a lesson in the real world - unfortunately, not the real world as we had been told in the classroom (petitioning the government, speaking out, etc). Obviously this real lesson had a lasting effect on me, as I still can't remember what it was I was supposed to write but the message sent still rings clear 30 years later: don't try to buck the man or you'll get stepped upon.
This program is certain to spawn a new generation of adults with similar memories. Indoctrination of this sort is doomed to fail as soon as the child begins to realize she can think for herself.
Now, getting back to those school lunches and corporate sports programs...
Parody (Score:4, Funny)
coke parody [bbspot.com] - this is a parody of the MPAA actions in schools. Rather funny, once you read it all.
this reminds me of "Don't copy that floppy" rap (Score:5, Informative)
very amusing
*Shrug* I should divx that and put it up somewhere... (they actualy give you permission to redistribute THAT PSA turd ironically enough...)
e.
What we teach... (Score:4, Funny)
Upon further reading, I realized that they did teach the kids a usable skill...
They tought a room full of kids who have never downloaded anything how to pirate. The even used a manual. Leave it to the entertainment industry to teach what they are trying to control.Oh well, nothing to see here...