International Law

More Whining About IP Ed. Campaigns

By Stan

The latest broadside in a concerted attack on China’s copyright pirates comes in the form of a double-header from the studios and the music biz teaming up to educate youngsters about the dangers of illegal P2P file sharing.

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) will distribute 300,000 copies of an educational booklet outlining the evils of illegal P2P to 300,000 students studying at the country’s top universities.

The MPA is currently engaged in a major drive against piracy in China, launching a series of competishes and announcing tie-ups with agencies to highlight the importance of intellectual property protection.

The booklet "Respect Creativity, Use Legally" warns students that users of P2P file-sharing services risk exposing their computers to harmful viruses, worms, Trojan horses and annoying pop-ups, and risk data loss and identify theft, the MPA said in a statement. (link to article)

You know, I really hate having to be critical once again. It goes against my nature as an IP lawyer to call bullshit on these campaigns, and the good people behind them, but I am compelled to do so. Look, not only are educational campaigns worth little more than a bucket of warm spit, but trying to scare kids from file sharing by talking up viruses is almost comical. Most AV software will take care of that sort of thing - the biggest downside to downloading a corrupted file is that it won’t work and you have to find an alternative, and that’s only scary if you don’t have broadband.

By the way, I gotta stop reading Variety. The use of the word "competishes" (I originally thought it was a typo) in the above quote is nauseating - I hate Yinglish, particularly when goyim make up new words they think are cute. [if you need to, feel free to pause now and google ‘Yinglish’ and ‘goyim’ so you can catch up with the rest of us — OK, onward]

Here’s another example of a ridiculous public education campaign:

Hollywood studios are taking their fight against piracy in China into the belly of the beast by erecting a huge billboard with an antipiracy message from Jackie Chan in Beijing’s Silk Market.

Billboard features a simple warning from the Hong Kong star: "Protect the movies, say NO to piracy."

I respect kids too much to think that they would be swayed from their thoroughly satisfying, albeit admittedly larcenist, file sharing activities just because of a Jackie Chan billboard. When I was a kid, such obvious attempts by adults to get us to do the right thing were symbols of derision.

How many times do I have to say this? Effective criminal, and to a lesser degree civil, enforcement is the only way to go here unless we find some sort of technology-based magic bullet. This other stuff is just embarrassing and will not significantly stop infringement of digital media.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on May 05, 2008 (boomark / email).