The story is simple: Two boys illegally download a movie from a torrent site and then get sucked into Cyberspace where green gremlin creatures fight shiny cybercops.You can read it here.

It would be cute, except for one thing: Escape From Terror Byte City is a pure propaganda comic book. It’s well-funded cyber-nazism.

A little bit of history here: The New Zealand Federation Against Copyright Theft (NZF@CT) was created by the Motion Picture Association to directly attack digital movie piracy. They are the public face of the MPA’s corporate interest.

Since inception, NZF@CT have lobbied hard for Section 92A of the New Zealand Copyright act which basically forces ISPs to pull the digital plug on New Zealanders who the MPA suspects of committing copyright violations.  False accusations are not punished.

In the current form, Section 92A allows for complete shutdown of internet access without trial. This would include any public access computer system such as schools or libraries.

It’s very similar to what the DMCA in the US and Canada is pushing towards.

These are not people who have the best interests of Netizens at heart. They want to control the flow of information for their own profit.

Of course, whoever wrote and drew Escape From Terror Byte City tried awfully hard to keep their name away from it. No artist credits are on the comic (an extreme rarity) and a Google search was unable to unearth any specific creators attached to it.

Can’t blame them, really. It would paint a big cyberpunk bullseye on their backs.

The comic itself (found here) is fluff, although fairly well-written and illustrated. And the animated 3D webisodes that expand on the comic are fun.

But the web address on the back of the comic has a “report piracy” section that reminds me of the Communist witch-hunt of the 1950s, where children were encouraged to turn over their parents for suspected Communist activities. Hitler’s Youth had similar campaigns.

The Terror-byte City campaign is spreading. Bollywood recently took the comic and translated it, pushing it to school children in India. And this comic is aimed at 5-10 year olds. Go ahead kids. Report your parents for illegal downloading.

Do it for your corporation…I mean country.