Garret the Ferret teaches digital ethics

Kids themselves have named a new comic-book hero, Garret the Ferret, who the Business Software Alliance hopes will teach them digital copyright ethics. “That software you’re copying is protected by copyright laws. What you are doing is wrong,” Garret tells Shawn, a comic-book kid who’s installing a friend’s graphics program on his home computer late one night. They’re the stars of “Copyright Crusader to the Rescue,” a four-page comic/”curriculum” that the BSA is mailing to 30,000 fourth-grade teachers who subscribe to the children’s publication Weekly Reader. So parents may soon receive a letter that comes with the companion teacher’s guide. Both can be downloaded at the BSA’s Play it Cyber Safe site. Here’s the BSA’s press release about the program.