Microsoft - The Photographer's Friend

I've been doing some watching lately, and it's become interesting to see Microsoft come late (atleast publically) to the photography bandwagon. I'm not referring to things like Corbis, or PhotoSynth, and so forth. I'm referring to things like their Microsoft Pro Photographer's Summit, and, more importantly, the campaign they launched two days ago.

Information Week has a great article on it, which is essentially, to teach the teens of today (who will be the lawyers, judges, and lawmakers of tomorrow) about the value of intellectual property, and about the importance of respecting copyright.

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Interestingly enough, (and with a major sigh of relief), it appears to be the case that the youth of today see the stick that is jailtime and fines, sufficient to warrant a curtailing of this unlawful behavior. To back this up, Microsoft released an indepth and throughly produced survey.

Significant among their findings:

• 49% of teens said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading content from the Internet.
• Only 11% understood the rules well
• of the 11%, 82% said downloading content illegally merits punishment
• Of those that are unfamiliar with the laws, 57% supported punishment for intellectual property violations.
• 41% of teens believe the cost to download a song should be between $.50 and $1.00
• 26% of those surveyed said digital songs should be less than $.50
• 21% said music that's online should be free.

This portends well, as a starting point. In other words, we're not at a 1% position, with 99% to go, but rather, we are further up the field than many thought. But Microsoft wants to do more, and is putting the money behind it do reverse the trend of a lack of respect for IP. So, they've got seveal initiatives "Intellectual Property Rights Education" for middle school and high school teachers, and MyBytes, where students can share their own content, learn it's values, and respect others copyrights.

So far, so good Microsoft. We are pleased you've come to the photo party on these issues, even if some may feel you're a bit late. On these issues, it's surely better late than never, and we could sure use your muscle and clout to make all of this happen sooner rather than later. We don't need teens who have little respect for copyright becoming the congressional staffers, legislators, and lawyers of tomorrow without a firm grasp of copyright and IP!

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