International Law

Information Week explains Microsoft's response to a recent study on teenagers attitudes to intellectual property:

Teens appear to be willing to curtail illegal downloading when told they face fines or jail time.

This finding, among many in a survey published by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on Wednesday, is the basis for the software company's new campaign to teach teens respect for intellectual property rights.

"Widespread access to the Internet has amplified the issue of intellectual property rights among children and teens," said Sherri Erickson, global manager of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, in a statement. "This survey provides more insight into the disparity between IP awareness and young people today and highlights the opportunity for schools to help prepare their students to be good online citizens."

Microsoft's survey found that about half of the teenagers surveyed (49%) said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading content from the Internet. Only 11% understood the rules well, and of those, 82% said downloading content illegally merits punishment. Among those unfamiliar with the law, only 57% supported punishment for intellectual property violations.

It's not clear whether Microsoft's statement to teen respondents -- "When you do not follow these rules you are open to significant fines and possibly jail time" -- is entirely accurate, particularly when teens under the age of 18 are involved. Emily Berger, an intellectual property fellow at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is skeptical. "I think it's being used as a scare tactic," she said. "It's a real stretch of the law to say it's theoretically possible."

Nevertheless, Microsoft wants to correct teens' woeful ignorance. To do so, it has turned to Topics Education, a developer of custom curricula, to create a curriculum called "Intellectual Property Rights Education" for middle school and high school teachers. The Microsoft-sponsored curriculum consists of Web-based resources and case-study driven lesson plans that aim to engage students about intellectual property issues.

To support its teachings, Microsoft has launched MyBytes, a Web site where students can create custom ringtones, share content -- "their own content," as Microsoft makes clear -- and learn more about intellectual property rights.

Read more here.  Ars Technica takes a more independent look at the survey's findings:

Nearly half of all teenagers have no familiarity with copyright laws and don't feel that the same type of punishment is necessary for illegally downloading media from the Internet as other types of theft. These findings came from a survey conducted by Microsoft, one which surveyed 501 seventh- through tenth-graders and examined their views on piracy. Only 11 percent of those surveyed said that they clearly understood the current rules for downloading music, movies, and other literature, and cited their parents as a main source of information on the rules behind downloading.

Given the above, it's not too surprising to hear that less than half of the group felt that some form of punishment was necessary for those who steal copyrighted content ...

Teens who did feel they had a good understanding of the rules were much less likely to flout copyright laws Microsoft said. Half of those who said they understood the laws of the land reported that their parents were their main source of information on copyright infringement (65 percent for younger teens), while TV, magazines, and newspapers came in a far second at 14 percent. Those knowledgeable about copyright were also more likely to think that illegal downloading should be punishable, with 82 percent saying that punishment should be required and another 28 percent feeling "strongly" about the issue.

The teens surveyed were more open to being educated about copyright than one would expect, though. In fact, a quick lesson on copyright guidelines (informing the group that downloading media usually involves paying a fee or gaining permission to use it, and that violations could involve significant fines) changed the opinions of a significant chunk of the group?72 percent. Considering that teenagers tend to lead the way in buying music online, pointing them in the right direction and giving them some way to pay for music legally (prepaid credit cards or gift cards for their favorite music stores) looks like a good idea.

Only about 28 percent said that they would continue to download and share copyrighted content without the owner's permission after being educated on copyright rules. Why? "Rock stars don't need the money," 40 percent of that group said.

Read more here.