The awareness program against piracy will reach 12,000 students in four communities

The Coalition of Creators and Content Industries and LaLiga have presented today the second edition of the educational workshops program "Defend your rights", which provides training and awareness to students of Elementary and Secondary Education on the consequences of digital piracy for development of the content sector. After the excellent results obtained in the first edition of the program, the project will take place in Madrid, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalucia, with the participation of 12,000 students from 120 schools.

The main objectives are to promote the essential respect for human rights, motivate students as future professionals in these sectors, which are among the higher capacity to generate employment in the Eurozone and show them what represents the trade and fraud of content (piracy) for employment and the economy.

Presential training sessions, aimed at students in grades 5 and 6 of elementary and 1 and 2 of secondary, have been specifically designed both in content and in the form to present them to involve the student in the defense of its own rights as consumer, those of the colleagues and those of other creators. To do this, an identification between the student and the content creator and those engaged in it professionally is developed, facilitating awareness of the importance of 'fair play'; to discern the right thing to do or not; and social collaboration to avoid what is wrong. Thereby also empathy is generated to those who create products that we all love and on whose legal distribution thousands of jobs and livelihoods of many families depend on.

"We have always argued that to promote, with a proper education, a change of attitudes could be the best complement to adequate legislation and an effective application to curb the social scourge of digital content piracy", said Carlota Navarrete Barreiro, director of the Coalition. "The success of the first edition of the project makes us reflect on the great significance that has the commitment for a clear message from the institutions, which in other subjects such as recycling or road safety has worked out with excellent results. An effort in awareness of the public authorities and the industry throughout the whole educational cycle can yield high returns in the habits of future generations. We believe that public administration should definitely join the efforts of the sector in this way", added Navarrete.

United against the same problem
"Piracy is the biggest problem that the sports industry has nowadays. So we want to go further in the way of facing it, and the education in civic values and respect for the rights may be one of the best ways to do it", said Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga. The joint development by LaLiga and the Coalition of the "Defend your rights. Promote Culture" program is one of the results of the strategic alliance that the two companies signed last July.

"For both organizations this project means, above all, the common endeavor to work together and find effective solutions for sectors affected by the same major problem of piracy, which in 2014 produced to all these industries a loss of profits of 1,700 million euros", said both entities.

Guillermo Cánovas, director of EducaLIKE, the entity responsible for the preparation and conducting workshops in schools, stresses the need to involve students as active users of digital tools: "We need 'students 2.0', which does not simply remain as mere consumers, but have an active role in the Network as generators and content creators. Developing this aspect and knowing the rights they have, they will learn to demand that they be respected. Young Internet users will grow with the understanding that the respect to the rights of others is something normal, and being actives in also defend theirs".