The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), long-time opponents of the anti-piracy lawsuit campaign by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has launched a new "Teaching Copyright" campaign aimed at educating people regarding copyright.
"Today's tech-savvy teens will grow into the artists and innovators of tomorrow," EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry said in a statement. "They need to understand their digital rights and responsibilities in order to create, critique, and comment on their culture. This curriculum fills an educational void, introducing critical questions of digital citizenship into the classroom without misinformation that scares kids from expressing themselves in the modern world."
Some critics of the RIAA previously said the music trade group should focus more on educating young people about file sharing, rather than launch individual file sharing lawsuits that have done little to stop piracy.
The new "Teaching Copyright" campaign is designed specifically so people have a better understanding of their "digital rights and responsibilities on the Internet and beyond." The EFF feels as if consumers are often bullied by the RIAA without understanding their rights, so this campaign is aimed to make sure people are as informed as possible.
I've watched a continued battle between the EFF and RIAA since the original Napster was shut down, and am pleased to see the EFF try and counter the RIAA's efforts in the class room. The RIAA has vowed not to file individual lawsuits any more, but will instead focus on pressuring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to stop people from sharing files.
I'm curious to see if people take to the EFF's campaign, as I routinely bump into people outside the tech world who are not familiar with the nonprofit organization.
