Teaching the Teachers About Copyright by George Ziemann -- May 28, 2010 The RIAA's education program seems to have missed Tempe, Arizona schools. While it is extremely hypocritical for me to turn someone in to the RIAA for copyright infringement, I am not only inclined, but eager, to make an exception in the case of Laird Elementary School, 1500 N Scovel St, Tempe, AZ 85281. This is a hypocritical decision because I do not agree with the RIAA's course of action. However, I have a much greater issue with one particular teacher at this school for the simple reason that the RIAA has not screwed over my kid and she has. Here's what happened. My daughter, Mackenzie, who is an excellent student, was dropped two grades in science this year because she neglected to take an important paper to school the day it was due. She had done the work, she just forgot to take it. Too bad, says the teacher. No excuses. No second chances. Mac was crushed by this, as it ruined her scholastic record. I wrote an e-mail to complain of this unfairness, suggesting maybe she deduct some points as an alternative, since Mac had actually completed the assignment and, from the looks of the multi-page document, spent a lot of time and effort to do so. Dropping her two complete grades seemed overly harsh. The teacher did not relent, as she seems to believe that organization is more important than doing the work. This is evidenced by the fact that the importance of organization was the focus of the morning's lecture to the class the day she received my e-mail. Mac has already been accepted into the International Baccalaureate program for high school, which realizes that exceptional students are rarely sheep that will go "Baa" just because that's what the rest of the herd does. As such, they ignore middle school grades and select eligible students as a result of performance on the standardized test, on which Mac pulled in a score at the 95 percentile mark. So I let it go. No real reason to push it, since this particular teacher's small-minded approach to education will be of no significance in the long run. The IB program is more concerned about learning ability and achievement than adhering strictly to petty rules. Today, was the 8th grade graduation ceremony, which changed my mind about just letting it go. The first part of the ceremony that pissed me off was when the students who were on the honor roll were recognized, a group that did not include Mac for the reasons stated earlier. Still, there's nothing to be done about that. The ending of the ceremony involved the screening of a DVD which this particular teacher authored. It was primarily a series of photos, which used copyrighted, RIAA-owned material as a musical background, despite the fact that the school has an orchestra, band and choir which are certainly capable of performing a few songs. First of all, the ceremony was held outside the school grounds at a Boys and Girls Club. There were probably 300-400 people in attendance, including the children. I did not see any indication of ASCAP or BMI licensing for the performance of copyrighted music. The kicker was when she announced that she had a copy for each of the 8th grade students, probably 50-60 students. This was a long presentation that used what seems to have been six copyrighted songs. After the event, I pointed out to her that, while organization was important, copyright infringement carried a potential $150,000 per song fine for statutory damages. That's $900,000 per CD, so we're talking a potential fine for the school district, if not for her personally, of somewhere in the $50 million range. Her response was, "I'm not selling them." Stupid bitch. Neither were any of the 40,000 or so people that the RIAA already sued. They were sharing, not selling. The actionable offense is for distribution of copyrighted material and she's guilty as hell, on a large enough scale for the RIAA to make an example of her, which is my sincere desire at this point. After all, if the K-8 educational system can't be trusted to set a proper example and show children respect for the law, it's not really very educational, is it? Today, this teacher indirectly taught all of the students in the school that copyright is irrelevant, you can burn your own CDs/DVDs of copyrighted material, and distribute them indiscriminately. Now, if a late paper is worth two grades, and if following petty rules is more important than doing the work, willfully violating U.S. copyright laws ought to be worth her damn job, since I know the school doesn't have $50 million to hand over to the RIAA. Doesn't matter how good a teacher she is, just as the content of Mac's paper didn't matter. She left the school open to a severe financial liability. And, like Mac's paper, there is no acceptable excuse, no reason to consider leniency, no second chances. This woman is breaking the law and, if she is not disciplined for it, I would fully expect her to repeat this every year in the future. So, in the event the RIAA stumbles across this, that location is (once again) Laird Elementary School, 1500 N Scovel St, Tempe, AZ 85281. The principal is Dr. Mark Eley. He knows exactly who the teacher in question is, as I have alerted him to this issue, not to mention the fact that he stood there the entire time and would actually serve as a reliable witness to the event. He probably has his own copy of the DVD. Phone number is 480-941-2440. It's one thing to simply be a dumbass file sharer. It's another thing altogether if you try to fuck with my child's future, then try to play ignorant of the law and its consequences. Respect for the law is more important than organizational skills. I'm going to make every effort to ensure that this person learns this valuable lesson about copyright, even if it destroys her career. Payback is a bitch. But rules are rules...