The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) campaign against media piracy has caught widespread attention as the agency seeks to stymie illegal downloads and distribution of copyrighted music and movies through preventive education and legal retribution. Tuesday marked another step in the effort, when MPAA announced a partnership with Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) to sponsor an upcoming, nationwide student competition for anti-piracy public service announcements (PSAs).
SIFE is an international, nonprofit, student-fueled organization that seeks to educate communities around the world about market economics, entrepreneurship, personal financial success skills, financial literacy, and business ethics.
Through contributions from various private and public sources, SIFE establishes chapters around college campuses, where the students then promote the organization's goals by participating with venues like high schools and businesses.
"SIFE is an international organization of college students where students meet up with each other and work on projects to try and better society as far as helping people learn more about business, helping businesses succeed, and helping students become educated about business," said Michael Wilhelm, SIFE president at Boston College and CSOM '07.
The MPAA pursued the partnership in a continuing effort to directly connect with target audiences, of whom college students constitute a great portion. "We are looking for ways to reach out directly to students," said Gayle Osterberg, MPAA representative in Washington, D.C.
"SIFE was chosen as they run a competition every year, are a good fit, and place emphasis on business ethics."
The partnership is only a part of the association's efforts to speak directly with students of all ages. "We do work with WiredKids, a project geared toward younger students and parents about dangers of the Internet," said Osterberg. "Our CEO is also speaking to other campuses around the country." The association also cited other efforts, like speaking to campus newspapers to generate interest in the copyright issue.
The agency is confident about the success of the PSA competition.
"These will be students who will be designing the PSAs, and we are hoping they will be messages that will appeal to others," Osterberg said. "We will work closely with SIFE itself to encourage this as a SIFE project." Such an approach allows students to express their opinions in a more open-ended environment. "We're excited to see what students will do with their ideas.".
Student opinions about the efficacy of such a project, however, are divided. Asked if student-produced PSAs would influence his opinions and actions in regard to media piracy, Peter Murphy, A&S '09, said they might.
"Probably not," as said by Chloe Martin, A&S '09, was the more common response, though. Students already seem to be aware of the consequences that come from downloading music, and the revelation of their peers' opinions are not seen as likely to change their behavior.
Regardless, it will take some time for the competition to reach BC students. Although SIFE has officially partnered on a national scale, the effects still need to trickle down to the local level. "Just to clarify, we're not doing tremendous things on that. It's just something that we're thinking about getting going with," said Wilhelm.
"But I think I speak for everybody by saying that it's a great idea to improve businesses' standing as far as ethics. BC prides itself on being a school based in ethics; BC has also drawn a hard line as far as people pirating music. So, we'd love to get involved and find the people to get involved and we can figure out the right thing that works with BC," he added.
The contest will eventually be open to students in all chapters.
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