If young people are aware of the laws over Internet file sharing and downloading, they are less likely to download content illegally. So basically you could say if there is more education and awareness of IP laws, less kids would download stuff illegally, or so the prevailing thought goes from Microsoft according to their press release. Microsoft is working with a company called Topics Education to create a pilot program dubbed Intellectual Property Rights Education they hope middle schools and high schools will adopt and educate their students. To help with the pilot program, Microsoft launched a corresponding web site that enables users to develop their own intellectual property and assign their own usage rights. I have to say, the site is pretty cool, especially for Microsoft and I can certainly see them extending the program to other areas. With all that said, it should be noted that the practice of illegally downloading unlicensed content by teens has actually been in steady decline over the past two years according to our tracking data from our youth Lifestyle Reports. There is a growing consensus that notes a marked shift in attitude among young people that you can't simply download anything you want for free anymore, a considerable difference from a couple of years ago during the heyday of Napster and Co.
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