Boyscouts Watching Your Downloads

I saw something on a T.V. show called Attack of the Show about boy scouts in Hong Kong searching the internet for people who download music illegally. I looked it up on the internet today and found a site about it. The boyscouts, girlscouts and 9 other youth groups. They are hoping to have 200,000 of them starting this summer ranging in age from 9-25. Here is the site I found it from: Boyscouts may be watching

Well I have to say that I find this slightly disturbing. Not because the HK Boyscouts and what not are doing it, thats not the problem, its the fact that the government went to the extream of encouraging them, if not out right backing them. Ok so they turn in a few piraters for a merit badge, cool, but it seems that they are being encouraged to turn in their neighbors. As posted on the site with the artical it seems like a modern day "Hitler redux" to me.If they don't like their neighbor, they say they have been pirating music and turn them in. Whoo now they are being rewarded for spending tons of time in chat rooms/forum wasting their time, and dropping a dime on those they don't like.

The Hitler Jugend of the Internet! What next? Concentration camps to pirates? Seriously speaking this is employing the same philosophy as the real Hitler Youth. Get a large enough portition of youngsters resisting and fighting the terrible scourge of piracy and their soon it'll become "uncool" to download. Downloaders get their asses kicked in school. Well that's what they're aiming for, am I right? Also this kind of activities serve well for keeping the kids out of real issues like human rights for instance.

This is quite disturbing.Considering this is come'n out the part of the world most pirating is as comon as breathing or blinking.What happened 2 the days when u'd go camping with ur boyscout troop.Now they stick the kis in front of a comp & call it a day.Can Boyscouts/Girlscouts as a whole/company/establishment do something 2 prevent this from happening???How do this better a childs life.In truth theres no way 2 combat piracy.This story is so sad/outrageos, how they exploit their future generation.I guess it's better then work'n in a sweat shop earning pennies a day.If I was a parent of 1 of these children I'd would prohibit any sort of activity associated with this ludacris act of child expliotation.Whats even more disturbing is that they could just as easily hire an adult to do this job, yet they stick with the idea of using children as a sort of loophole/child labour.

Edited July 24, 2006 by `Cunning Linguist´ ©® (see edit history)

The idea is good but the implementation is horribly wrong.1. They should be paid.2. If they are going through forums and blogs this seems like a privacy issue to me.3. They should be searching for people who host the illegal downloads rather then searching for the people who do the downloading.4. It does mock Hitler Youth in a way considering minors will be taking orders fromt their government now, even if it might be against friends and family.The raw idea of creating a way to catch the illegal downloads is great but the way they are doing it sounds way too edgy. There is probably more going on with this then has been released. Like they are doing more then searching for illegal downloaders/uploaders. I have no idea what but the whole thing sounds fishy to me.

Yeah, the idea is nice, but I don't really like the actions which have been taken to prevent this, how can they stop music downloading when software like dc++ exist and people can easily share music or whatever they want. So downloading music through http is old fashioned, usually you can get demo or legal music there and nothing fancy. I think adult scouts would rather search for illegal porno sites and stop/close/filter them in my opinion it is much more bigger problem, even though I think I better be neutral, but it really sounds as "The Hitler Jugend of the Internet!" or maybe even little Pioneers in Soviet Union, parents were afraid of them too, because they told the "system" about illegal stuff their parents did.. What you want, China - communism.

Ok, that is just wrong. Agreed with the whole "Hitler Nazi" thing... comparable to it, very much so. Actually, the boy scouts aren't that bad... fun camp outs, merit badges, but I think the "Piracy Badge" justs pushes it a little too far. I know piracy is bad and wrong, but come on! Would you turn someone in just for downloading ONE MP3?? I think all of us have downloaded at least ONE MP3 illegally. I find it is a great way to try new artists. That's how I got hooked on AFI & I want to buy their latest CD. "Borrowing" also helps because I don't really get any "good" radio stations in my room.. the signal is all static or junk. Or, my favorite radio station (which I can't get in my room, go figure) posts song titles online of what they've played so I'll go and look up a song and see if I like it or not.If there are any boy scouts here who want their "Piracy badge", I'll let you gladly turn me in.[N]F

Yeah, I agree with Quatrux, the porn sites are definitely a lot worse. They ought to focus their energy on what might be the worst form of criminal activity and trying to abolish that instead.

 

I guess the words in that news report that scare me the most are, "expected to participate". I mean, what? Why? They're being forced to do something? It definitely does sound like Hitler--they're hiring kids to do what they don't necessarily want to do.

 

Now...if only there were a loophole in the law. Ahh...yes! Aren't there jurisdiction issues? There are a number of countries in the world where the copyright law is highly lax--like getting a bunch of boy scouts to enforce them is going to help. Besides--there is another moot point to this. You cannot use a forum to violate copyright laws! Ever. Just because an illegal site was posted at a forum does not mean you can automatically accuse those who visited that thread of downloading! Visting doesn't equal downloading, so how is searching through forums supposed to help them figure out who downloaded and who didn't?

 

They technically can only find the site that the illegal file was hosted at (which is better...but the site doesn't mention suing the hosters of illegal music...only the downloaders) And just because you shared a site with others through a forum doesn't mean you're doing the illegal act--the only illegal act would be hosting or downloading. There's no proof you're doing either of those just by sharing the site. So I guess you could argue the boy scouts at court...if you get a good enough lawyer.

 

This is highly stupid anyway. So China's copyright laws are lax, and Hong Kong's just a special district in China. What the heck are they gonna do? >_> Tell the Chinese to stop pirating or else go to jail? Pssssh. Yeah right.

Edited July 25, 2006 by Arbitrary (see edit history)

Yeah, the idea is nice, but I don't really like the actions which have been taken to prevent this, how can they stop music downloading when software like dc++ exist and people can easily share music or whatever they want. So downloading music through http is old fashioned, usually you can get demo or legal music there and nothing fancy. I think adult scouts would rather search for illegal porno sites and stop/close/filter them in my opinion it is much more bigger problem, even though I think I better be neutral, but it really sounds as "The Hitler Jugend of the Internet!" or maybe even little Pioneers in Soviet Union, parents were afraid of them too, because they told the "system" about illegal stuff their parents did.. What you want, China - communism.

Yeah let's let the boy scouts search for illegal porn. at least it's funner than simply mp3s. and like all those boy scouts aren't doing it themselves? they'll probably end up spying on each other. Maybe the government can pay the boys to each choose a porn site and be the moderator, dily checking what the latest uploads/downloads were, and previewing them for content. ;D

Yeah let's let the boy scouts search for illegal porn. at least it's funner than simply mp3s. and like all those boy scouts aren't doing it themselves? they'll probably end up spying on each other. Maybe the government can pay the boys to each choose a porn site and be the moderator, dily checking what the latest uploads/downloads were, and previewing them for content. ;D

Hahaha...now that's funny. But of course, who said it had to be the boy scouts searching for this? Why can't it just be some robot? (I mean, any human, boy scout or not, who indulges in searching for illegal porn sites is going to get some kick outta searching...><, so it has to be a programmed robot who doesn't think consensually...)

Adding some words about illegal porn, those sites usually just link to each other and usually when created they aren't updated for a long time and as I understand they get a lot of traffic, people downloads porno a lot. As a matter of fact, the filters which filters porno and other stuff i very useful for your kids, for example Privoxy.. it also can remove all the ads and as I know there are people, even women who browse the net for porno sites and ads them to the filter system, that kids couldn't access them and etc. a very good job they are doing, but I wonder how do they feel about it.. Of course, if this is just an extra job, maybe you can get used to it, but watching/searching for illegal mp3 in my opinion is stupid, even though the "idea" is quite good, but I think it is just a waste of time.

Adding some words about illegal porn, those sites usually just link to each other and usually when created they aren't updated for a long time and as I understand they get a lot of traffic, people downloads porno a lot. As a matter of fact, the filters which filters porno and other stuff i very useful for your kids, for example Privoxy.. it also can remove all the ads and as I know there are people, even women who browse the net for porno sites and ads them to the filter system, that kids couldn't access them and etc. a very good job they are doing, but I wonder how do they feel about it.. Of course, if this is just an extra job, maybe you can get used to it, but watching/searching for illegal mp3 in my opinion is stupid, even though the "idea" is quite good, but I think it is just a waste of time.

Very well said...
I couldn't have said it better myself.

I totally agree with you when u say its a total waste of time.
These kids could be spending this time being kids instead of doing the dirty work for their government.

Great statement Quatrux.

I think I remember hearing about this awhile ago. Have to say its amusing. Sad to think about what our world is coming to, but funny to think they are having the scouts hunt people down.

I think I remember hearing about this awhile ago. Have to say its amusing.
Sad to think about what our world is coming to, but funny to think they are having the scouts hunt people down.

yeah, they should be called boy hunters..

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the idea is really good but i dont like the implementation..
boy scouts is suppose to be a sample of discipline and comraderie..

the place where boyscouts belong is in the camps, in the community
helping and serving..

computer is for researchers and nerds.. and for gamers also..

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i strongly oppose to the implementation since this is a lot of hellish plot
the way of earning the badges is way out of the teaching of scouts

i earn my eagle badge with hardwork and community service with some
part in relief operation but not in this way..

haha ok thats really weird-kyle