Year in Review: Education Campaigns

Education campaigns initiated in Australia in 2008 consisted of the launch of a ten minute video by MIPI highlighting the difficulties faced by musicians in Australia.[1] The film is to be distributed to high schools and contains a segment dealing with file sharing.[2] The majority of press coverage concerned the inclusion of Lindsay McDougall of Frenzal Rhomb who claimed that he was misquoted and would not have participated if he had know in was designed to discourage the trading of music over the internet.[3]

In the United States the National Centre for State Courts published a pamphlet which many suggested contained incorrect information in stating that file sharers would be held criminally responsible for their actions.[4]

Other notable examples at attempts to educate students in the United States regarding their responsibilities for file sharing included the creation of a compulsory six question quiz for students to get file sharing access at Missouri University of Science and Technology on a times basis.[5] The scheme requires students to get all questions correct before being allocated six hours access to file sharing networks.[6]

The University of Michigan developed the BAYU system – Be Aware You Are Uploading.[7] Students are notified via email each time it is detected that they are uploading as away to discourage participation in file sharing networks and to raise awareness of the potential liability from doing so.[8] The system was open sourced and made available to other universities with at least one – Northwestern University – also implementing the email notification system.[9]

In the UK Virgin Media agreed to participate in a letter writing campaign at the request of BPI in which users were sent letters advising that they had been monitored participating in file sharing activity, providing details as to potential liability and alternative legal sources of music.[10]

The Green Party of Europe also released a video criticising the content industry and main stream media for treating file sharing as a form of theft and characterising every day citizens as criminals.[11]

The charity Childnet also began an education campaign with pamphlets to be distributed to 21 countries to help raise awareness of file sharing implications.[12]

[1] Australian Music: In Tune (April 2008) <http://www.in-tune.com.au/> at 29 April 2008
[2] The Age, Please don't rip off our music (29 April 2008) <http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/04/29/1209234824947.html> at 29 April 2008
[3] TechDirt, Musician Claims He Was Tricked Into Appearing In Anti-Piracy Video (1 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080501/035740998.shtml> at 2 May 2008; Sydney Morning Herald, Musician 'duped' into anti-piracy video (1 May 2008) <http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/04/30/1209234943373.html> at 2 May 2008
[4] TechDirt, Totally False Propaganda About File Sharing Being Given To Students As Educational Material (22 August 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080822/0233162059.shtml> at 25 August 2008; ZeroPaid, RIAA Comic Tries to Scare Kids, Says They Face Years In Jail (21 August 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9709/RIAA+Comic+Tries+to+Scare+Kids%2C+Says+they+Face+Years+in+Jail> at 22 August 2008
[5] ArsTechnica, RIAA v. U: the state of P2P file sharing on campus (26 August 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/raa-v-u-on-campus.ars/2> at 28 August 2008; ZeroPaid, College Allows File-Sharing for Student Who Ace Copyright Law Test (19 May 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9503/College+Allows+File-Sharing+for+Students+Who+Ace+Copyright+Law+Test> at 21 May 2008; TechDirt, University Makes Students Take Copyright Quiz To Get Timed Access To P2P (16 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080515/1907211130.shtml> at 21 May 2008
[6] Associated Press, Copyright quiz limits students' music file sharing (5 June 2008) <http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCWtRbLKE-7NlcLKQok2RQVSTgvgD913E9880> at 5 June 2008; ZeroPaid, College Allows File-Sharing for Student Who Ace Copyright Law Test (19 May 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9503/College+Allows+File-Sharing+for+Students+Who+Ace+Copyright+Law+Test> at 21 May 2008; TechDirt, University Makes Students Take Copyright Quiz To Get Timed Access To P2P (16 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080515/1907211130.shtml> at 21 May 2008
[7] ArsTechnica, RIAA v. U: the state of P2P file sharing on campus (26 August 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/raa-v-u-on-campus.ars/2> at 28 August 2008
[8] ArsTechnica, RIAA v. U: the state of P2P file sharing on campus (26 August 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/raa-v-u-on-campus.ars/2> at 28 August 2008
[9] ArsTechnica, Northwestern fighting campus P2P use with... e-mail? (27 August 2008) <http://arstechnica.com/index.ars> at 28 August 2008
[10] ZeroPaid, UK ISP, Record Industry Join Forces to Fight Illegal File Sharing (11 June 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9545/UK+ISP%2C+Record+Industry+Join+Forces+to+Fight+Illegal+File-Sharing> at 13 June 2008
[11] ZeroPaid, Green Party of Europe creates new video supporting file sharing (22 January 2008) <http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9210/Green+Party+of+Europe+Creates+New+Video+Supporting+File-Sharing> at 30 January 2008
[12] BBC News, Charity advice on music downloads (30 April 2008) <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7375621.stm> at 3 May 2008; TechDirt, Recording Industry Funds Charity To Run Its Latest Brainwashing Program (2 May 2008) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080430/090922985.shtml> at 3 May 2008