MPAA to Help Parents Delete Files

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/341/mpaa_to_help' target='_blank'>http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/341/mpaa_to_help</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Being the helpful people that they are, the MPAA has announced a software package ostensibly aimed at helping parents determine if P2P software and/or illegally downloaded songs or movies are resident on a computer. The tool will then assist parents in removing such software and deleting any purportedly illegal files. Of course, these days there are many, many ways to legally download songs. And it's still legal -- at least for now -- to rip one's own CD or DVD collection onto a computer. So I'd expect that, in addition to many genuinely illicit files, all sorts of legally downloaded and ripped files will be getting cleaned out."</i><br /><br />I know that many of you reading DMT are parents. So have you chatted with your children about the "evils" of downloading music off of the web?

[mcsouth]

I have three children, from ages 8 to 12, that are Internet-savvy, and have been on the 'net for 5 years. I tend to closely monitor the Internet activities of our kids, in order to avoid the illegal download of music files, etc, but mainly to prevent the download of software, like Kazaa, which is more trouble than it's worth, at least in my opinion.

My wife and I both agree with the concept of fair use, but that does not extend to file sharing, in our opinion, so we have made sure that our kids understand the concept of copyright, and that they don't grow up in an environment where intellectual property theft is considered acceptable. As a result, I do not see any need to take up the MPAA on their offer to "assist us" in cleaning content off of our PC's.

Having said that, I still believe that the MPAA/RIAA/whatever are being a 'bit' heavy-handed in their attempt to control the intellectual property theft. While I have no doubt that there is certainly a fair amount of 'profits' being lost to theft, this tends to occur in any industry. Assuming that all consumers are guilty, and that fair use priviledges must be restricted/trampled on is unacceptable to me. Hopefully, these industries will finally recognize that they must adapt their distribution models to the new reality, so that everyone wins, and honest folks are not considered crooks for ripping music/movies for fair use purposes.

[Gary Sheynkman]

well.....we have about 3 thousand CDs all purchased for $1.75. But then again, there are no music stores in Ukraine so there is no way to actually buy music for its full price. Now that I am in the States though, anytime I need/want music i just have mom or dad bring it when they are making a trip over here. :lol:

[Suhit Gupta]

I have three children, from ages 8 to 12, that are Internet-savvy, and have been on the 'net for 5 years. I tend to closely monitor the Internet activities of our kids, in order to avoid the illegal download of music files, etc, but mainly to prevent the download of software, like Kazaa, which is more trouble than it's worth, at least in my opinion.
I agree with what you say. BTW, how do you monitor your kids' adctivities? Parental controls or do you watch over them most of the time that they are on the web?

Suhit

[mcsouth]

Combination of things, really.....Combination of using Parental controls on Norton Internet Security, plus constant monitoring during use, and after use in History. Definitely not foolproof, as I discovered four viruses on their PC this morning, but sufficient for now. As they continue to get more savvy, it may be more difficult to monitor, but I warn them every now and then that I can easily ban them from the Internet (through the router settings) if they start activites that they have been warned against.