Filed under: Internet, Microsoft
Microsoft: Teens don't understand intellectual property
Microsoft has also released the findings of a survey stating that 49% of teens between 7th and 10th grade don't know "the rules and guidelines" for downloading media from the internet. But 82% of teens who said they were familiar with those rules said that people who downloaded content illegally should be punished. That's compared with 57% from teenagers who were unfamiliar with the law.
And while 90% of those surveyed said someone should be punished if they steal a bicycle, only 48% said people should be punished for downloading copyrighted material. Microsoft's takeaway point is that kids don't know much about the rules governing intellectual property and don't think of downloading as stealing.
So the goal of the MyBytes web site is to teach kids about intellectual property. The problem is that the site has so many things going on, it's not really clear what users are supposed to be learning. If you watch the videos, you get the impression that teenagers don't really think much about copyright when they grab an image from the web and post it to their MySpace page. If the goal is to teach kids that downloading content without permission is wrong, we're not sure MyBytes sends that message.
Oh yeah, and of course, there's no mention of Creative Commons or other licenses that artists and content producers might employ to make their content freely available. And there's no mention in the press release or on the web site about Fair Use exceptions for news, parody, and other purposes.