Boy Scouts in Hong Kong must be working on a new badge. Is there one for being tools of the entertainment industry?
Starting this summer the Hong Kong government plans to have 200,000 youths search Internet discussion sites for illegal copies of copyrighted songs and movies, and report them to the authorities. The campaign has delighted the entertainment industry, but prompted misgivings among some civil liberties advocates.
The kids will visit Internet discussion sites and report to authorities when they find copyrighted material available through a posting.
I don't think it's a civil liberties issue to report on people who are breaking the law. I don't have a problem with the crackdown on sharing copyrighted files. (Stricter enforcement here has saved me a lot of money. A few years ago I used to buy one or two CDs a week because I found new music that I liked through shared files. Now I go months without purchasing one.) I wouldn't object to commercials directed at kids and teens encouraging them to report illegal file sharing but this is too much - "All members of the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and nine other uniformed youth groups here, ranging in age from 9 to 25, will be expected to participate." It's no wonder this reminds some people of mainland China's Cultural Revolution.
Posted by marybeth at July 20, 2006 04:37 PM Other Stuff