Copyright and education

William Patry has an interesting post today about imbalanced educational campaigns directed to children concerning copyright violations. I suppose that one of the toughest challenges to those who try to produce more "balanced" campaigns for kids, telling them that they must “respect” copyright, is that we, grownups and educators, are not always sure about it ourselves.

(That's possibly why I feel the need to use quotation marks so often in one sentence.)

Anyway, this clip, presented before a children TV program, definitely worth the minute it takes to watch it. It’s in German, but the language is no real barrier for the chilling message to come across. After the song, the threatening masculine voice states that illegal copying is subject to a five-year jail penalty and that illegal copiers are criminals. Then, the little boy asks his mommy when daddy is coming back home, and she replies: “we have to sing four more times.”