FILM INDUSTRY FUNDS PROGRAM TO TEACH DIGITAL ETHICS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

The Motion Picture Association of America, which caught flak recently for clamping down on the distribution of movie industry screeners, is now taking its campaign against digital piracy to the classroom.

The MPAA has contributed $100,000 to launch an anti-piracy program for up to 900,000 students nationwide in grades 5-9 over the next two years. The program was introduced earlier this month at selected schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Called What's the Diff? the program is being implemented by Junior Achievement Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating students about business, economics and free enterprise.

``I think it's beneficial in terms of getting kids to start thinking about behavior online, where they pause and think about what's right and what's wrong, what's legal and what's illegal,'' MPAA spokesman Rich Taylor said Wednesday.

But the program is already under scrutiny for what some label one-sided content and also because it is offering more than 750 prizes - including DVD players, movie tickets and a trip to Hollywood - for winning essays written about the illegal aspects of file-sharing.

The National Education Association, the country's largest teachers lobby, is particularly concerned about the incentives.

``We have concerns about students being a captive audience for any kind of corporate propaganda, and we've developed guidelines about how business programs or relationships with businesses should be run when it comes to schools,'' said NEA spokeswoman Melinda Anderson. ``What we found problematic is the fact that in exchange for this curriculum, they are offering prizes for writing essays.''

Darrell Luzzo, senior vice president of education for Junior Achievement, said the essay portion of the program is ``totally optional'' for students and separate from the classroom presentation, which is taught by a volunteer from the business world.

``The work that would go into (the essay) would occur completely at home with the approval of a parent or guardian,'' Luzzo said.

Meanwhile, the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation is concerned that since the MPAA is underwriting the program, there is not a full picture of copyright law being presented.

``It's a clearly biased viewpoint presented in an environment where kids expect to be given unbiased truths,'' said Wendy Seltzer, an EFF staff attorney. ``This is a simplistic and often wrong view of the copyright law being presented to them as the law. Even middle school and high school kids can think in more nuanced ways than the junior achievement program is giving them.''

Gary Hickman, president of Junior Achievement of Southern California, defended the program's content Wednesday.

``I think everything we do is balanced,'' he said. ``We show them all the sides of the story and guide them to making up their own minds instead of just saying, Hey, don't download!''

Luzzo said the idea was born more than a year ago when Junior Achievement decided it wanted to include lessons on character and ethics. He said What's the Diff? was one of those proposed to the MPAA by Junior Achievement.

``We could talk about corporate finance ethics but we knew that kids aren't going to be as engaged,'' Luzzo said. ``I knew kids could relate to the topic of digital ethics and downloading files and we wanted to use it to discuss the ethics involved with copyright. They are debating and challenging each other.''

Hickman was present for the first local presentation to a speech and drama class at Markham Middle School in Los Angeles and said the cyber-savvy students were immediately engaged.

``It's a topic that got their attention,'' he said. ``I think it went over well because it was something kids could relate to. You are always looking for a hook to get the kids to pay more attention.''

The program has the support of many film industry leaders, including Warner Bros. Entertainment Chairman Barry Meyer.

``It may seem idealistic but I truly believe that when kids and their parents are aware that their actions are illegal and understand the impact these actions have, they will choose not to break the law,'' Meyer said. ``It is our hope that this curriculum, along with Junior Achievement's other ethics-based lessons, will teach them those facts and help us stem the tide.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com