Thought Thieves

May 10, 2005 | Intellectual Property | By: Mark VandeWettering

Microsoft is sponsoring a short film competition in the UK entitled Thought Thieves on the subject of intellectual property theft.

Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else? What would you do?

There are two categories: 14-17 year olds, and 18+.

Submissions are limited to 45 seconds or less, presumably because intellectual property law is straightforward and uncontroversial.

I wonder if any of the entries will touch on any of the following topics:

  • The difference between copyright infringement and theft.
  • The founder’s idea that the grant of copyright and patent monopolies exist to promote the useful arts and sciences, and that they be limited in duration.
  • That technological innovation has always lead to periods of extended discussion and compromise.
  • That the doctrine of fair use exists to protect individuals who use works in a limited way.

Somehow, I suspect the films will be considerably less subtle in their treatment of this topic.

Comments

Comment from Dan Lyke
Time 5/11/2005 at 5:04 pm

Oh, this should be fun. We can start with Microsoft violating NDAs, patents and copyrights in the days of Disk Doubler (for isntance), and work forward through the numerous transgressions from there!

I’m looking forward to this.

Trackback from Stodge
Time 5/16/2005 at 2:49 pm

Stop stealing my thoughts! My three-point plan to Information Freedom

Thought thieves… once the domain of 2nd rate science fiction writers are now a reality, at least according to Microsoft. Of course, many news sources have already pointed out the Microsoft, more than any other company have a reputation for ripping of…

Editor’s note: If you click on Stodge’s name above, you will be transported to his blog where you can read about his three point plan. While I do think that points two and three are great (namely, raise a fuss about this stuff and work to create your own media) I’m not really enamoured with the civil disobedience thing. If you really want to listen to Britney Spears, I think you should obey the law as it exists and make payment according to the law. But you should strongly consider whether your support of a music industry which ignores the long tail is good for society in general…