That the Asian countries have a pretty strict view on Internet censorship is hardly a surprise to our faithful readers, but now they’ve managed to surprise us once again through some unconvential means. Hong Kong’s government will namely have boy scouts “patrol” discussions groups and similar meeting places on the web where there are discussions about pirated material and such. The boy scouts’ task is simply to survey so that no illegal material is made available through these discussion groups, if so they are suppose to report this to the authorities which in turn will verify whether it really is pirated software being spread.
“customs officials will verify the posting and then relay it to trade groups like the Motion Picture Association or the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The associations and their members then send warning letters to the Web masters of the discussion forums, asking them to delete the offending posting; the customs officials keep secret which child has spotted which posting.”
Even if the movie and music industry thinks it sounds great putting 200 000 children to work, which is the goal, with finding filesharers not everyone is as optimistic. Many feel insecure whether people between the ages of 9-25 really are the right people to do this and even the teens that has participated with the first tests have noticed that not everyone has appreciated their work.
“Youths who participated in a pilot program this spring found another problem: some of their friends thought it was uncool. “They joke with me and ask, ‘Oooh, will you arrest me?’ ” said Hung Ming-Wai, 16.”
Hong Kong has found a really unique way to try and stop the spread of pirated material, but so far there are no other countries that has shown any interest in adapting Hong Kong’s new tactic.
