Library of Congress Curriculum

I'd call this curriculum not so much depressing or amusing as pointless. It seems like if you're not going to engage kids at a level that makes them think of copyright as important, complex, or even interesting, then there's little point in making a big production out of it. The flash animation doesn't do much more than state a cut and dried rule. We may decide that that's all young kids are ready for. But if that's the case, then I can't see justifying too much time or effort explaining copyright to them.

It's more likely that there's a middle ground somewhere. I'd suggest that as a starting point, even young kids could be taught the basic tensions behind copyright-- the idea that we want to promote the arts and sciences, while not overly restricting their dissemination. Framed in a familiar context like music file sharing, I think kids of the age that this flash animation is aimed at (8-12?) could have an enlightening discussion of the issue.

Mostly, I would just want to avoid making a copyright lesson seem to kids like a lesson about not doing drugs, or wearing a bike helmet, or any other concern you'd expect to see a lame commercial about during weekday afternoon cartoons. This flash animation smacks of such lameness.

It wasn't all bad though. I mention some good ideas we could take from it in my one page review, particularly the idea of teaching kids that copyright is something that empowers them as content creators, rather than simply restricting them as content consumers.