Andre Yoskowitz
26 Aug 2008 11:08
The nonprofit group the National Center for State Courts has released an "educational comic strip" on the unlawful file sharing of music which it hopes will drive U.S. students away from the "dangers" of illegal file sharing.
On Friday the organization said they had distributed 50,000 copies of the 24-page booklet to students across the States. The booklet, "The Case of Internet Piracy," however, is not at all entirely true, and instead reads as if the RIAA was writing it. Download an unauthorized track and head to jail, as well as losing your scholarship and your friends.
"The purpose is basically to educate kids -- middle school and high school-aged about how the justice system operates and about what really goes on in the courtroom as opposed to what you see on television," said Lorri Montgomery, the center's communications director.
Wired gives a rundown of the entire booklet, which goes something like this:
"The piracy story has two plots. One is of the file sharer's grandmother fighting eminent domain proceedings to keep her house while Megan the criminal file sharer deals with the charges against her.
The story is simple: Megan learns to download music from a friend. About 2,000 downloads and three months later, a police officer from the fictitious City of Arbor knocks on her door and hands her a criminal summons to appear in court.
All the while, her grandmother is trying to save her house from the city that wants to pave it over. When the grandmother gets home from a day in court (she eventually beats the city and keeps her house) the criminal Megan is crying. "Oh, Nana. What have I done? I've ruined everything," she said. "I'll lose my scholarship. I know I will."
The two embrace. "Hush now. We will find a way to get through this. I promise," the grandmother tells her granddaughter, whose parents were killed in a traffic accident 12 years before.
To the criminal courtroom we go …
Megan In the case of Megan Robbins, "Criminal Case Number 67589B," a city prosecutor urges the maximum two-year sentence after Robbins pleads guilty. The city appoints her a public defender. (Criminal copyright infringement is when somebody sells pirated works and not sharing on a peer-to-peer network. And it’s the federal government, not local cities which prosecute the criminal cases.)
The local prosecutor, Terry Williams, tells the judge that the defendant "is charged with theft, at the state level" and adds that the girl faces "stiff penalties – up to two years in jail and $25,000 in fines."
"Many consider downloading music without paying for it to be a victimless crime, but nothing could be further from the truth," the prosecutor says.
The prosecution added that "Her conviction sends a message that illegally downloading music is a crime, and anyone involved will be held accountable."
The criminal is handed a three-month suspended sentence and 200 hours of public service."
If you would like to see the propaganda in its entirety, you can get the PDF here: "The Case of Internet Piracy"