[imc-wellington] Films for future screenings

[strypes]

Kia ora crew

Great to see the film archives screenings continuing. I notice you are
replaying some classic docos from the last few years (Tūhoe, and Iraq
for Sale). I have a couple of doco suggestions for future screenings,
docos that haven't been shown publicly in Aotearoa yet, that I know of.

Good Copy, Bad Copy
http://www.goodcopybadcopy.net/
(There is a copy of this on the fileserver at Oblong.)

Steal This Film (I and II)
http://www.stealthisfilm.com/Part2/index.php
(Part II is probably the stronger, and more polished of the two. Daniel
at Oblong was going to download it, not sure if that happened.)

These films are about "intellectual property", the right to copy, and
the impact these things have on freedom of speech, freedom of gift
exchange, and people's ability to freely participate in the evolution of
digital culture. Putting toll gates on the exchange of articles of
knowledge, and cultural artifacts, hampers the free cross-pollination of
ideas that could lead to radical solutions to the problems that face
humanity today - state-corporate domination, peak oil, climate change etc

Worse, it concentrates the ownerships of knowledge, and the right to
disseminate it, in the hands of elites, like those that run
corporations, and nation-states - elites whose personal, short-term
interests are diametrically opposed to the long-term interests of the
majority of the world's people. The last period of history in which an
empire of co-operating elites controlled people's access to knowledge
was called the Dark Ages, and that empire was called Christianity. It's
"intellectual property" enforcers were called the Inquisition, and those
who pursued unapproved research, or shared knowledge with the working
people were imprisoned, tortured, and killed as heretics.

One tool that made a major contribution to the ending of the dark ages,
and the spreading of skills like literacy, and numeracy, among people of
all ages and classes, was the printing press. The ability to rapidly
copy existing written works, and distribute copies to many people, was a
critical part of the enlightenment, and the renaissance, that followed.

In our own age, the technologies of the internet are playing a similar
role, allowing the infinite copying and redistribution of works of
knowledge and culture. But the elite who have benefited from withholding
the right to copy are not going to give up their privilege without a
fight. Currently this is taking the form of international legal tools
like the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and intra-national
regulations like the Australian governments new ISP-level internet
filtering. Recent amendments to the NZ governments Copyright Act oblige
ISPs to spy on their customers, or risk being help responsible for
"theft of intellectual property" they might carry out.

These documentaries explore these issues, and look at systems like
CreativeCommons which propose alternatives based on fair agreements
between authors and their audiences. I encourage you to check them out,
show them to other people, make copies, and pass them around, so the
ideas they illustrate can become part of a broad public debate around
these issues. Not only because that's what it creators would want, but
because you have a right, and arguably a moral duty, to share something
that costs you nothing to replicate with your neighbour.

Hei kōnei rā
Strypes



-- 
BTW Fight the 'Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement'!
http://www.disintermedia.net.nz

"After reports of rapes and other violence by police against women who
had been arrested, protesters held up larger mirrors to the federal
police, who could see their faces in the mirrors with the superimposed
words: 'I am a rapist.'"
Broken Barricades: The Oaxaca Rebellion in Victory, Defeat, and Beyond
http://collectivereinventions.org/

http://www.creativecommons.org.nz
http://www.indymedia.org.nz