If there is one subject that sends me through the roof (or into mild depression) it’s copyright “education.” Here’s the latest alert, from BoingBoing:
“Access Copyright has launched a new site that borders on parody, but is apparently serious. Captain Copyright, is a new “superhero” that educates children about the virtues of copyright, rushing to the scene in the event that someone publishes research without proper credit. While my first reaction to the site was that it is just silly, as I dug deeper, I now find it shameful. These materials, targeting kids as young as six years old, mispresents many issues and proposes classroom activities that are offensive.” There is also the intriguing news that Captain Copyright plagarizes.
The educational comic on the site explains the epiphany that turns an innocent kid into Captain Copyright: the school bully infringes his original comic. That’s right, kids, copyright infringers are bullies, and we need superheros (lawyers aren’t enough?) to fight them in the name of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Well, the Canadian Way. Depressing.
The idea that a nice classroom activity is writing your own copyright permission form is also kind of strange. Kids who think Michaelangelo was a Ninja Turtle need to be spending time learning the basics, not copyright licensing tactics. But even better is this 6-8th grade class activity:
“Have students search on the Internet to find out how to request permission. They might need to find the copyright owner (creator or publisher) or they may need to check with a copyright collective to see if the work is covered under a given license.”
Yeah, right. We’ve spent the last several days searching for the copyright holders for 25 photographers for an upcoming exhibition catalog. Let’s see, I’d calculate about 60 professional man-hours expended for a grand total of 12 copyright holders found. Good luck, kids.
The site isn’t as awful as the post on BoingBoing might lead one to believe — except for the comics — although there are inconsistencies (the above-mentioned permission form includes a parent’s signature, disproving the point the site makes about minors holding copyright in their creations). It seems to be the Canadian answer to copyrightkids.org.
I like the little math graphic Slashdot uses for their Education section. It says it all, especially in this context.
If you really want a comic book on copyright, there’s an excellent one, “Tales from the Public Domain:Bound by Law?,” from Duke Law School’s Center for Study of the Public Domain.
June 13th, 2006 08:12
Boy, you hit the nail on the head here. These efforts are becoming a parody of themselves. Reminds me of my favorite IP cartoon (by Hilary B. Price, who does a cartoon strip called “Rhymes with Orange”) which has a kindergarten teacher announcing to her class during “circle time” that their lesson on sharing has been canceled, and will be replaced instead by a lesson called “Protecting Intellectual Property”.
How about just teaching the “Golden Rule”? It’s easier and more broadly applicable than Captain Copyright.
August 17th, 2006 10:58
*shudder*
I would love to see some statistics on how many teachers are actually using this site. It seems to me that most teachers would actually be teaching elementary school kids the life skills they need. One would hope, anyway.