Intellectual Property Law

I Wouldn't Steal

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

The Greens | European Free Alliance in the European Parliament created this video as a statement against a media industry that fights illegal downloading and copying. To get its point across, the video uses visual references to the much-parodied "You Wouldn't Steal . . ." campaign, which appears at the front of many U.S. made films. As they argue at the I wouldn't steal website, the media industry has failed to offer viable legal alternatives and has failed to convince consumers that sharing equals stealing. Unfortunately, from the standpoint of wanting to convince American audiences of the value of progressive copyright reform, particularly of the DMCA, the video doesn't do much to explain possible artistic, educational, and critical uses for making and remixing content from digital copies and emphasizes only oppositional politics in the street.

Of course, I did appreciate the reference to Star Wars geeks.

Link via Marc van Gurp at Osocio

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).