A scout is loyal to the Queen, his country, his troop and Sony-BMG

As that chap who tried to unite all the German speaking peoples of Europe into one superstate knew, it always helps to win children over to your cause, so it's nice to see the entertainment industry taking a break from suing to children to invite scouts to turn themselves into copyright watchers:

Boy Scouts in the Los Angeles area will now be able to earn a merit patch for learning about the evils of downloading pirated movies and music.

The patch shows a film reel, a music CD and the international copyright symbol, a C enclosed in a circle.

The movie industry has developed the curriculum.

"Working with the Boy Scouts of Los Angeles, we have a real opportunity to educate a new generation about how movies are made, why they are valuable, and hopefully change attitudes about intellectual property theft," Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement Friday.

Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music.

The useful part for the scouts will be the tips on how download copyright material - until you have it explained how to do wrong, you might do wrong wrong. They also like the "respect your knife" sessions for the same reason.

music copyright