First, we're planning to finish off the STEAL THIS FILM project with STEAL THIS FILM, THE MOVIE. This will comprise material from STEAL THIS FILM I and II and some road movie style footage of us interacting with people around the film, showing it here and there, and having arguments. This might sound a bit reflexive but the discussions produced by STF can be quite lively and we thought we might get a bit of that liveliness into the the film.
Simultaneously, we're moving on to our next project for which we'll finally drop the STEAL THIS FILM name.
'Intellectual property', said Mark Getty, 'is the oil of the twenty first century'. Getty is chairman of Getty Images and one of the world's largest intellectual proprietors. His comment offers a unique perspective on the conflicts evolving around information as it penetrates and shapes every aspects of our lives -- from nutrition to medicine, from markets to civil liberties.
This film explores those conflicts. Established and developing economies wage war on each other through restriction and promulgation of information, with devastating consequences on lives and ways of life. Nations like Britain and the US, once information 'pirates' themselves, now support the rights of massive corporations to protect their pharmaceutical patents at the expense of lives in developing countries. Meanwhile, burgeoning Asian economies exploit difficulties with enforcement to create multi-billion dollar pirate industries that are increasingly seen as a real threat to Hollywood.
THE OIL OF THE 21st CENTURY presents five real scenes from the war of information raging in the world, linked by discussions from leading sociopolitical, economic and cultural thinkers and activists. Both through historical analysis and exposition of current events, THE OIL OF THE 21ST CENTURY uncovers the hidden life of intellectual property and argues that the way in which we regulate the production and flow of information in the world will have critical implications for our society's growth and development.