Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Los Angeles Boy Scouts can now earn an MPAA Merit Badge

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-13-2007, 08:51 PM:

Official curriculum in PDF and HTML.

RESPECT COPYRIGHTS:
Curriculum for the Los Angeles Area Boy Scouts of America

Intellectual Property is no different than physical property. Stealing intellectual property that is copyrighted is against the law and can have serious consequences. Movies, music, games and software are forms of intellectually property that are usually copyrighted to protect the people who make them.

Copyright theft, often called “piracy” is the theft of copyrighted materials. Some copyright thieves have so-called “bootleg” operations on the streets where they sell
illegal copies of such materials while others may post them on the Internet for people to download illegally. Both forms of copyright theft are illegal and carry various penalties under the law.

This program is meant to teach the value of a copyright whether it’s a movie available on the Internet or in the form of a bootleg product on the street.

Activities:

Demonstrate your knowledge of the following:
a. What is a copyright?
b. Why do copyrights matter?
c. Identify five types of copyrighted works (two may be your own). For each, give the author/creator and the date the work was copyrighted.
d. Name three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

Presentation:

Complete ONE of the following activities:

Create a Public Service Announcement/Copyright Protection Advertisement - With the help of your counselor and/or troop leader, prepare a 1-minute (60 seconds) video that demonstrates the importance of copyright protection.

Write a Pamphlet/Brochure - Create a presentation (either in power-point format or a pamphlet/brochure) that demonstrates why copyright protection is important.

Perform a Skit - Write and perform a skit about why copyright protection is important.

Book - Create your own original illustration depicting the importance of copyright protection (i.e. comic book, comic strip, etc).

Visit a video sharing network or peer to peer website and identify which materials are copyrighted and which aren’t.
Make a list of your favorite movies and then list all the ways people can download those movies legally without violating copyright law.

Research peer to peer websites – describe to your troop what they are and how they are sometimes used to illegally trade copyrighted materials. There are peer to peer groups who offer legal downloads and those who offer illegal downloads -
make a list of both. Suggest ways to detect peer to peer software like the MPAA’s Parent File Scan.

California specific: Visit a movie studio with your troop. Upon your return list all of the things you saw that went into making a movie. Have a discussion with your troop leader about how much each item cost or how much it costs to make a movie (information on MPAA website).

Movie

Go to a movie and stay through all of the credits. Tell your counselor and/or troop leader who you think, in addition to the main actors and actresses, would be hurt if that film were stolen?

Explain what a bootleg DVD looks like and how people can avoid purchasing counterfeit DVDs on the streets.

Video Game

Play your favorite videogame. Identify who the designers are and describe the elements of the game which are copyrightable.
Discuss with your troop leader.

Music

Play your favorite CD for your troop leader and explain why you enjoy listening to it. List all of the people that contributed to making this CD and what their individual responsibilities were.

Materials/Research:

Research materials can be found at the following links:

Motion Picture Association of America
www.mpaa.org

Wired Kids and Wired Safety
www.WiredKids.orgPage 3

Respect Copyrights
www.respectcopyrights.org

Peer2Peers
www.peer2peers.org

Download Legal
www.Downloadlegal.org

The Copyright Society of the U.S.A.
www.csusa.org

Pause Parent Play
www.pauseparentplay.org

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-13-2007, 09:06 PM:

I am an Eagle Scout so I believe I can say this with some authority:

Lamest merit badge ever.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-13-2007, 09:25 PM:

This is what it looks like:

Also, apparently it's not officially sanctioned by the Scouts, so they're calling it a "merit patch" and not a badge.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-13-2007, 10:35 PM:

Oh thank god, I thought the BSA had really gone off their rocker.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-14-2007, 07:55 AM:

Sorry in advance if any of the following is too political. Moderators - please feel free to edit as appropriate.

quote: Syllabus
Intellectual Property is no different than physical property

This statement is in some respects intellectually shallow, and in others just plain wrong!

On the 'plain wrong' score, intellectual property is different from physical property because:

1. It only lasts for a set period of time from the legally defined moment of creation (e.g. for a film under UK law, 70 years from the end of the year in which the first public screening took place), and then ceases to exist.

2. It can be licensed to many different people and to many different purposes at the same time. If I own a car (physical property), I can only rent it to one person at a time. If I own the copyright to a film, I can grant as few or as many people a licence to view that film as I wish.

3. The definition of copyright theft varies significantly from country to country and culture to culture. Stealing physical property means more or less the same thing wherever and however you do it. No so with copyright: what might be deemed 'fair use' or 'fair dealing' under one country's copyright law might not be in another's.

Etc. etc. etc.

As for the intellectual shallowness, whoever wrote this syllabus really should read Lawrence Lessig's book Free Culture, Free Society, in which he argues that the boundary between what should be legally protected as intellectual property and what should be in the public domain (and why) is a dynamic, constantly shifting debate.

If you're going to teach kids about copyright, you should teach them both sides of the coin. That means covering what the public domain is and why we have it, not just why we legally protect the earning power of those who create intellectual property for a living.

Rant over.

Posted by Christopher Meredith (Member # 3767) on 02-14-2007, 09:23 AM:

The MPAA is so devoid of intelligence and common sense it almost embarrasses me to work in the industry.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-14-2007, 10:12 AM:

quote: Christopher Meredith
The MPAA is so devoid of intelligence and common sense it almost embarrasses me to work in the industry.

I would have to say the exact same thing about the Boy Scouts. They have recently been convicted of starting a major Forest Fire out in this area and aside from allowing scouts to go off on theor own at Zion National Park and fall off 2000 foot cliffs... and scoutmasters gtting electrocuted whilst setting up tents I would have to say that the Scouts have pretty much lost any decent face they had.

Mark

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 02-14-2007, 12:24 PM:

Here's what the merit badge should look like:

http://fusionanomaly.net/negativlandcopyrightinfringement.jpg

(Sorry I'm still too retarded to know how to post pictures directly)

Posted by Edwin Sheldon (Member # 4001) on 02-14-2007, 03:46 PM:

Gag me with a chainsaw.

Posted by Jon Miller (Member # 163) on 02-14-2007, 07:29 PM:

More on the smoke-and-mirrors that is behind the idea of "intellectual property," courtesy of the GNU Project folks...

Posted by Ian Woloschin (Member # 3709) on 02-15-2007, 02:21 AM:

Wow, I'm an Eagle Scout as well, and I have to say that is the biggest joke of a merit "patch" I have ever seen.

From what I remember, all of the merit badges I did were not politically biased, it was simply a set of things that you needed to learn or do, such as swimming or first aid or hell, even basket weaving. This "patch" kind of totally destroys that idea.

I think if the BSA ever officially made this into a merit badge I'd be sending some letters to them...

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 02-15-2007, 09:56 AM:

Not a joke, just a sad reality. The Boy Scouts of America, once a fine and proud independent organization dedicated to helping boys become men is now a subsidiary of the Mormon "church" and concentrates on propagandizing boys with their cult nonsense.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-15-2007, 10:22 AM:

If that's true then scouting has changed quite a bit in the last 10 years. Perhaps I should visit my old troop and see what's up.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 02-15-2007, 12:59 PM:

Evil Mormons have ruined scouting, eh? Nice.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 02-15-2007, 01:49 PM:

Nothing is like it used to be, including Scouts.

I spent 12 years in the Scouts. Things are different now - but so is everything else. No - I don't think any single organization has a certain influence on Scouting. Most Scout Troops were supported by churches and met in them - hence the religious connection. That is still true to a point. Depending on what church your child goes to a Scout meeting at - there may be some religious influence.

Anyways - as far as this MPAA/Copyright merit badge thing. I applaud them for trying to the right thing. Nowadays - no-one seems to give a damn about anything. So any effort to teach the difference between right and wrong - deserves ......something. Even if it is 'lame'.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-15-2007, 01:50 PM:

That's one ugly looking "merit patch."

Posted by Ian Woloschin (Member # 3709) on 02-16-2007, 02:16 AM:

quote: Dave Macaulay
Not a joke, just a sad reality. The Boy Scouts of America, once a fine and proud independent organization dedicated to helping boys become men is now a subsidiary of the Mormon "church" and concentrates on propagandizing boys with their cult nonsense.

I haven't found that to be the case. My troop met in a Lutheran church, and while several of the families in the troop were members of the congregation, most of us were not. In addition, six of us (including me and my two brothers and three brothers from another family) are Jewish, and the troop always made sure to plan around the Jewish holidays if possible.

That being said, there has definitely been a change in scouting since when I began and when I left. All the kids seem to be softer and more afraid of getting dirty, though I tend to attribute that to kids having uncontrolled access to technology and bad parenting, usually not the Mormons...

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 02-16-2007, 03:10 AM:

No more discussion of religion, please.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-16-2007, 04:09 AM:

I think the fact that the Scout movement's 'bible' is a book entitled Scouting for Boys, written by a middle-aged single man who seemed to like spending most of his time with young kids, says all that needs to be said on that score... [puke]