MPAA Gives Teachers Stupid Solution to Creating Educational Clips

MPAA shows how to videorecord a TV set by Vimeo user Timothy Vollmer


The Copyright Office is currently going through proposed exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. One proposed exception concerns teachers, who would like the legal approval to rip DVD's and edit them for classroom use. To me, that sounds totally fine. However, if the Motion Picture Association of America were to say no, I'd probably say mean things to them, but recognize that copyright law is what it is.

However, instead of giving a "yes" or "no" answer, they showed off the video above, in which they try to convince the rulemaking comittee that videotaping your television with a camcorder is an acceptable alternative to ripping and editing video. Are you kidding me?

I'm no expert in copyright law. I understand that copyright law is a mess right now, and as technology destroys the entire model that copyright law was built upon in the first place it's only going to get tougher. But I know enough to say that FILMING YOUR TELEVISION IS NOT THE ANSWER!

I understand why they think it's the answer. This way, you only take the chunks you need, and the quality is worse. But having teachers film their televisions isn't going to solve anything.

The MPAA's draconian process takes longer, more equipment, crappier quality, and sacrifices the quality of education to the students to protect a mixtape of clips that is useless outside the classroom? The MPAA has a lot more to worry about than teachers putting together teaching materials.

There was a quote I found on boingboing that put it best:

In the words of media literacy researcher Martine Courant Rife, that's like typing up a quote from a book, taking it outside, chiseling the words in a rock, photographing the rock, scanning the photo, and running OCR on it. And for what?"

I'm not sure what the real answer is to copywrites in the 21st century. But it seems like both the MPAA and the RIAA strike-out every single time they've tried to impose their power on the new world of media, whether that's suing children for downloading, trying to make people feel bad for getting a movie for free, and now this. If they want to be seen as the protectors of intelligent property rather than out-of-touch executives on a power trip, they'll need to come up with some better solutions than what they've shown during the last decade.

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When Opportunity Knocks

When I first went to college for radio, I came in with a mindset similar to the one I brought with me from high school. Getting good grades was my top priority. And I got those good grades, as I always have. But did they help me get my first job in the radio industry? In a way, yes. But with years of hindsight to draw from, I got my internship and job for the following reasons:

1) I had a good relationship with my professor.
2) My professor was close friends with a program director.
3) I was willing to drive an hour every day to work in this piece of junk 1991 Ford Tempo.
4) My demo tape wasn't complete crap.

R.I.P. Jakemobile. Still miss you, buddy.

The letter grades on my report card didn't decide my fate. It was ultimately that opportunity to prove my worth to my teacher and that program director that got me in. As I've learned through my successes and failures in my radio career, regardless of my talent or competency, making things happen revolves around opportunities and positioning yourself in a way that you're ready to make or capitalize on them.

So when I went back to school for advertising, the mindset was much more opportunity-driven. Instead of approaching homework as a way to get my marks up, it was an opportunity to learn, improve my skill-set and in some cases, network. It was an opportunity to prove to my professors that I deserved to be in their classes. And most importantly to me, an opportunity to prove to them that I'm worth referring to potential employers. When I networked, I used it as an opportunity to show my potential worth to them.

Has that mentality worked for me? I think it has. While it took longer than I had hoped to land an internship, it wasn't for a lack of opportunity and definitely wasn't because of a lack of trying on my part. My journey to land an internship included me sending out resumes and portfolios to multiple agencies, making phone calls, attending job interviews and even pitching a client.

It's a bit too early to say what the next big move is for me, and this may not be the venue to announce it, should I announce it at all in any public forum. But it's a really big jump from the classroom. If the standard advertising agency internship was the equivalent of learning how to crawl, then the position I'm in now is the equivalent of me being picked out of the cradle, placed on the ground and expected to dance like a member of the Jabbawockeez. As daunting as it may sound, a lot of great things could happen if I could in fact, dance like a Jabbawockee.

image from Kabillion

Even this blog is an attempt at making opportunities. I have the know-how to create one; why make something of it? I seem to be making some noise with it so far. Let's take this as far as it can go.

To wrap this whole ramble about opportunity up, three assorted pointers from yours truly that may or may not be helpful to you someday, as well as a bonus expression I learned from Anthony Kalamut that's as powerful as any :

1) Opportunities don't fall out of the sky. You make them.
2) Opportunities don't always follow your watch.
3) Whenever there's a good opportunity in front of you, make the most of it.

"If it is to be, it is up to me."

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