Posted on May 9, 2008 in Childnet, IP, Propaganda, RIAA by Brian RoweView Comments

RIAA's version of the Childnet guideI was curious about Childnet’s Young People Music and the Internet guide and decided to email [email protected] to get my own physical copy of the guide. I was very surprised to receive a return email from an RIAA employee! Not once in the guide is the RIAA mentioned, only a partner organization pro-Music.org

This guide for parents and teachers has been written by children’s charity Childnet International, with support from Pro-Music and Netfamily news.org.

The views in this guide are solely those of Childnet. Childnet is a non-profit organisation working to help make the internet a great and safe place for children. Registered as a charity in the UK (number 1080173).

Pro-Music is an international music sector education campaign about digital music. This guide is supported by Pro-Music member organisations representing musicians, performers, artists, major and independent record companies, publishers, managers and retailers across the music industry. To order copies of this leaflet e-mail: [email protected]

Here is the response I received from ProMusic via the RIAA:

No Problem. I will e-mail him.

We actually list it on our homepage:
http://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents.php

Best/

Coordinator, Communications

Recording Industry Association of America

(Personal contact information removed)

After further research it appears that the RIAA’s version of the leaflet has been up for about a year. (Thank you Internet Archive.) I would expect a little more disclosure and attribution from a charity. Childnet simply reworked older propaganda from the RIAA while removing any direct links to the less popular RIAA brand by misleading readers to believe that their support comes from ProMusic.

I hope we can lobby the charity to change the leaflet and come clean over who their partners are. It was a little jarring to request a leaflet from a charity and receive an email response from an organization that is notorious in the US for intimidation tactics, privacy violations and harassment of college students.

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