Reading, Writing, and Warning against Illegal File Sharing?
By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2006
California students may have another lesson in store if the recording and motion picture industries have their way. The CA legislature is considering a new bill, authored by state assemblyman Ed Chavez (D-Industry), that links state K–12 technology funding to required lessons on copyright, digital ethics, and the implications of illegal file sharing. Both the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America are backing the bill, which, if passed, would go into effect in the 2006-2007 school year.
“Studies show that problems with illegal downloading are highest among 18- to 24-year-olds,” says Kellie Smith, consultant to the CA assembly's committee that oversees arts and entertainment, which Chavez chairs. “So we're looking at a preventative approach, informing children at an early age of the proper use of technology.”
But the bill, AB 307, makes no mention of how schools would have to implement these plans in order to be eligible for grants, admits Smith. And critics are concerned about dedicating valuable classroom time to teaching these lessons—and whether this requirement might stall the delivery of much-needed technology funding.
“In essence, they're blackmailing schools in exchange for technology funding,” says Corynne McSherry, a staff attorney at the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a non-profit digital rights group.
The bill has already passed the state assembly and is expected to be reviewed by the senate in June. If both sides approve it, the bill could be before Gov. Schwarzenegger by the end of the session in late August of this year.
