New Boy Scout badge: Turn in your file-sharing parents
- IT TOPICS:Government & Regulation, Networking, Security
Gone are the days when Boy Scouts learned to camp, fish, and hunt. Scouts can now earn a "Respect Copyrights" merit badge by, among other things, finding out if their parents download copyrighted music files.
ars technica reports that the Los Angeles Area Boy Scouts partnered with the MPAA to create a "Respect Copyrights" patch. The materials for telling eager scouts how to earn the badge makes this interesting suggestion -- they should tell friends about "ways to detect peer to peer software like the MPAA Parent File Scan."
The software lists all file-swapping programs, and all media files, whether they're legal or not, on a hard drive. Obviously, a kid would run it on the family PC. He'll be able to ferret out all the potentially infringing files of Mom and Dad.
The Boy Scouts don't make clear what little Junior should do when he finds infringing files. Blackmail perhaps?
Free Insider Guide