Motion Picture Association Bullies Kids With Anti-Pirating Comic Book

As often as we praise sequential art for its sheer communication powers, it's like Uncle Ben (kind of) said: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Responsibility number one? Don't misinform your audience -- especially children.

According to TorrentFreak, however, that's precisely what the Motion Picture Association plans do with a new comic demonizing illegal downloads. Unfortunately for everyone, "Escape From Terror Byte City" fails to frame the file sharing debate using facts or logic, preferring to sling one-sided propaganda in an effort to scare youngsters straight. Their message: Person-to-person file sharing is inherently evil and so are you (pretty much).Yes, intellectual property law is all well and good. Nobody wants to be plagiarized and professionals ought to be able to make a living off of their hard work. As a writer, you'll get no argument from me.

The reason the MPAA's tactics offend isn't due to their basic argument, but rather the way its argued. Vilifying file sharing without explaining its very real benefits (when used legally) is a huge disservice to the youngsters who might end up reading the comic.

Of course, if the rest of the comic reads like what's online, I don't think anyone has to worry about kids actually picking it up.