Of all the ideas for a film competition for MSN to sponsor, this one wouldn’t be my first choice–nor even would it be in the top googol (1 with 100 zeros following it).
Perception being what it is, the Slashdotters are going to have fun with this one.
But here’s what really is so ironic to me. MSN is in the midst of a challenging competitive battle with Google, primarily over search. And what is search? It’s the use of “thought snippets” from all across the web. And what do Google and MSN do with these snippets? They add advertising and make money from them. Tons of it. Does Google or MSN ask to use these works? Nope. Are they thieves? Not to me. In fact, in the US all of this has been deemed “fair use.” Seems reasonable. Not everyone agrees though. The French are arguing that it isn’t fair. And who knows, they may win.
The point is that the over-encompassing title of the contest “Thought Thieves” doesn’t even get close to appreciating the nuances of the issue. The description on the first page doesn’t help. It’s just too broad and too negative.
And one critical lesson from Google is how well it has leveraged–in a very cooperative way–all that the web has to offer. It’s done so with its page ranks. It’s done so with its highly accessible ad system. It’s done so with its blogs. And going forward it’s going to do so with video, printed content, and who knows what else.
MSN may want to spend its time teaching the value of intellectual property and ownership, a la Dan Bricklin style. It’s important to do so. But in terms of a contest, this one just seems odd.
Fine, but how do you engage with young people who steal software, music etc etc and who would find a discussion as you describe as extremely boring? Most of them won’t engage in a “nuanced” discussion about theft. For all the online “outrage” from anti-MS geeks about this competition I haven’t seen a single argument that refutes the central issue this competiton is about – “Is it right to steal IP?”. If it is right, lets hear the rationale/justification. If not…..
You’re right about the slashdotters but they hate MS regardless, and their discussions/rants are completely isolated from the mainstream. That is their curse.
I can envision a positive-minded contest that gets the point across: Develop a movie that leverages online content and your own content–utilizing fair use.
“Fair use” is what most of the discussion is about. Just going through the exercise of documenting what is usable and what is not would seem to be good to me. And my guess is that not everyone will agree. Who knows, maybe out of the classroom discussion a future IP attorney will be born.