zocalo writes:
Techdirt is reporting in a follow up to their 2006 story about how the Los Angeles wing of the Boy Scouts of America had started offering an MPAA-supported patch in "respecting copyright," in which "respecting copyright" was actually respecting the MPAA's industry slanted view of copyright. Now it appears that the Girl Scouts are finally catching up. The Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation has helped create a special new "IP patch" for the Girl Scouts (PDF).
As the articles notes in its conclusion, there is also an "Energy Conservation" badge sponsored by an oil company so it appears that if you have a powerful enough industry, you can now push propaganda on kids in the form of "merit badges".
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Girl Scouts Get a Badge in Intellectual Property
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by bucc5062 on Friday March 28 2014, @01:41AM
(yes, I am invoking betterridge, sue me)
Given that lobbyists are writing law for Congress, it s not surprising that corporations are creating merit badges to help shape the fertile minds of young generations.
It's a sad new world.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 1) by Immerman on Friday March 28 2014, @02:09AM
Amen.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Grishnakh on Friday March 28 2014, @02:33AM
It's just yet another sign that the USA is in decline and will collapse before too long.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Friday March 28 2014, @03:55AM
In a world where all things are equal, the efficiency of each nation (or whatever division of government we have then) will basically amount to their operating costs. For example, if the USA keeps its massive prison system in place [wikipedia.org] and a tax code that has millions of words [slate.com] the country is going to fall behind more efficient nations.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday March 28 2014, @01:25PM
Not necessarily. A massive prison system means lots of slave laborers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @03:35AM
It's a sad old world.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @02:09AM
From my limited understanding of how the girl and boy scouts operate it is just an indoctrination process for the corporate world. It troubles me that these things are possible and not objective in any way, teaching the equilibrium as right.
The girl scout cookie scam as I think of it is probably the most obvious example of this, it's capitalism with child labor, but with careful marketing to make it seem like some kind of charitable cause. Now I can understand the benefits of such organizations. However the willing subservience to corporate interests undermines the message, teaching the benefits of independence as well as community, and critical thinking.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by moo kuh on Friday March 28 2014, @08:17AM
Agreed. What I find as bad or worse is those "fund raisers" schools do where children sell over priced candy. The cut the schools get is tiny and the prizes offered to the children are pathetic. I refuse to buy from them. I would rather just have a one time tax for whatever it is they are trying to pay for.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by monster on Friday March 28 2014, @09:17AM
Since in the culture I belong to there isn't any tradition about that Boy/Girl Scout thing I haven't got a formed opinion about the matter, but I have recently read an interesting point of view about it [typepad.com]:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by VLM on Friday March 28 2014, @12:20PM
I can make an attempt at a view from the inside.
Why yes, the rate of return is miserable. Its not all that worse than working retail, which I got involved in as a starving student. Your typical supermarket would be thrilled with a 20% profit on gross sales (obviously this has varied over the decades).
I can personally assure you as a minor sub-minion in the leadership team of a pack that no one will give you any trouble if you opt out of 6 hours of popcorn sales labor by donating the $10 or so the pack would have made off your 6 hours of labor. Happens all the time including hybrid models (I'll buy one tin of popcorn for $30 and the pack can keep the change) Put in the money to pay for activities or put in some selling time, thats all we ask. Or put in your time volunteering otherwise. If you do absolutely nothing for the pack as a matter of politeness we will complain about your lack of popcorn sales but what we're really crabby about your complete lack of involvement.
If its a financial income thing just volunteer to do something else. Teach the first aid class to the pack or something and we'll be just as happy as if you made us $10 by selling $500 of Christmas wreathes.
From the top to the bottom at least until the kids are darn near teens its all parents putting in the work. At the lowest levels it isn't a major resume coup (so as treasurer, I handled all the cash and balanced the books, big deal), but at the higher levels coordinating shipping and ordering and scheduling is a very respectable accomplishment for the parents and is resume-worthy. So to be blunt its all about resume stuffing for the parents at the higher levels and everyone else is dragged along. An interesting contrast to the "new product" resume stuffers is things like "scouting for food" where they (kids or parents..) gather enormous amounts of food at spectacular effort for the local food pantry. No one complains about this equally pointless labor exercise. To be blunt it would be a better use of a parent devs time to work overtime and buy an entire shipping pallet of mac n cheese than to hang donation bags on doors, but whatever.
There is corp influence to some extent all thru scouting. Think of tent mfgrs, backpack mfgrs, the firearms industry, camp stove mfgrs... I agree its not entirely out of character for IP to involve corporations. Like the real world or not, the kids live in it. Better to monkeywrench and use it as a teachable moment than to pretend it doesn't exist.
There's a lesson in scouting that there's room in the world for calm, polite, and respectful dissent. Its not a rabid cult. I don't quite see eye to eye on some of the religious nut hot issues and that's OK. My employer and I don't agree on everything, my neighbor and I don't agree on everything, its all good.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @03:54PM
You do, it's called property tax or school tax (some places separate the two out, some places combine them). Maybe we should raise taxes, or raise school taxes, so our kids don't beg door-to-door on the government's behalf? When they are separated (like in NY, USA) you can even donate extra tax and it goes straight to the school taxing authority. I've never tried this in FL, USA, where it's all rolled together, so I don't know where exactly that extra tax money would go.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday March 28 2014, @01:15PM
Way back when I was in Boy Scouts (I made it to Eagle), it was more about camping, learning to tie knots, and leatherworking and such. I can't see how any of that can be considered indoctrination into a corporate world - unless it was a ploy by camping equipment manufacturers. But it's been decades since I had any contact with scouting, so I suppose things may have changed significantly.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by maddening milkshakes on Friday March 28 2014, @02:27AM
When I was a scout, it was all about the NRA. So why not an MPAA merit badge? Other suggestions: LBGT merit badge, NAACP, PETA, sky's the limit.
(Score: 5, Funny) by deimtee on Friday March 28 2014, @02:42AM
I like the idea of a "sky's the limit" badge.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2, Funny) by ButchDeLoria on Friday March 28 2014, @11:18AM
NAMBLA Boy Scout badges.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by caseih on Friday March 28 2014, @03:15AM
Pipe dream I know. But it'd be nice if they were honest and had a section that demonstrated an understanding of fair use, and for bonus points, an understanding of the Creative Commons, the GPL, and other similar open source licenses.
And if I was a leader, I'd give the badge to anyone who successfully files a DMCA counter-notice against a media company! To heck with **AA-paid for requirements!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @06:28AM
if I was a leader
Former Star Scout here.
(Had the merit badges need for Life Scout and would have made that if I had gotten off my butt and had stayed in longer.)
I know that for the Boy Scouts, an adult doesn't need to be a "leader" to participate.
I had some advisers who were strict and some that were easy.
Wanna change the status quo? Get involved. [google.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by Konomi on Friday March 28 2014, @04:00AM
If only it was Internet Protocol Badge, I might have ended up attending after all.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Make Room on Friday March 28 2014, @04:15AM
Won't the introduction of this badge distract Girl Guides from its core mission of teaching girls to play with fire?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @06:08AM
What a shameful organization. This MAFIAA indoctrination sounds like what they do.c a_membership_controversies [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_Scouts_of_Ameri
BSA is starting to sound like the other BSA...
(Score: 3) by aristarchus on Friday March 28 2014, @09:22AM
I think in both the Soviet Union and Communist China, there was a merit badge for turning your parents in for counter-revolutionary activity. Like respecting copyright claims. Ouch.
(Score: 3) by bradley13 on Friday March 28 2014, @11:40AM
Maybe I misremember, but as far as I recall my merit badges all had to do with practical, hands-on skills. When did the scouts start having PC-merit badges? And merit badges sponsored by specific corporate interests?
In this case, the merit badge is defined by the "Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation". We can just imagine what kind of balanced view they are going to offer.
Pathetic. Both that they would even consider such a merit badge, and that they would non-critically accept it as defined by a party with a clear interest in misrepresenting a complex issue.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Friday March 28 2014, @12:44PM
"as I recall my merit badges all had to do with practical, hands-on skills. When did the scouts start having PC-merit badges? "
You must be old, dude, my dad got the radio (aka ham radio) badge which was first rewarded about 90 years ago. I looked it up online and its been offered since '23. And Architecture Astronomy, Cooking, plumbing, photography all have been offered for 103 years. Coin collecting first offered in '38? Its not all rifle marksmanship, which has only been offered in current form since '88.
Although some recent badges are pretty lame, they've added some cool ones. I've been considering in my infinite spare time volunteering to be a local counselor for the "new" programming badge.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Friday March 28 2014, @01:38PM
Its not all rifle marksmanship, which has only been offered in current form since '88.
Rifle shooting goes back much farther than that. The only thing that happened in '88 was they split the old "Rifle and Shotgun Shooting" merit badge into two separate merit badges. According to this [meritbadge.org], the previous MB goes back to '67.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Grishnakh on Friday March 28 2014, @01:45PM
When did the scouts start having PC-merit badges?
Computers merit badge [meritbadge.org] came out in 1967.