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No Piracy Here, Scouts Honor!

The Motion Picture Association of America hopes to convert young mp3-downloaders into copyright enforcers, and who better to enlist than the Boy Scouts? Scouts in L.A., all 50,000 of them, can now add another patch to their sleeve.

Boy Scouts will earn the "Respect Copyrights" merit patch after following the curriculum designed by the M.P.A.A., which includes the basics of copyright law and instructions on how to identify five types of copyrighted works, and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen. Scouts must also choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to meet the “victims” of piracy (likely not the stars of films like Brokeback Mountain).

Check out other examples of Intellectual Property Run Amok that Mother Jones unearthed this spring:

-To prevent piracy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a Montreal Cineplex monitored audiences with metal detectors and night vision goggle and checked popcorn for video cameras.

-Last year Disney and other media companies sued two small L.A. shops for selling $15 pinatas of Winnie the Pooh, The Incredibles, and Nemo.

-A French Director had to pay $1,300 after a character in his film whistled the communist anthem, “The Internationale,” without permission.

Find the rest here, and sources here.

--Koshlan Mayer-Blackwell

Posted by Mother Jones on 10/23/06 at 8:49 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg | de.licio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Yahoo! MyWeb | StumbleUpon | Netscape | Google |