Here is a piece I have just produced for Broadcast magazine.

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Paul Getty’s proclamation that ‘intellectual property is the oil of the twenty first century’ may one day become infamous. In the network age, scarcity-driven ‘commodity’ models of media are under threat. Desperate to maintain this precious but increasingly ephemeral substance, the entertainment industries have demanded all sorts of remedies, technological and legal, pushing authorities to take increasingly expansive views of existing copyright laws.

Disturbingly, the latest anti-filesharing schemes being trialled around the world pose grave risks to all of our civil liberties. A green paper on the creative industries published on Friday 22nd February was the first hint that Britain may buckle to pressures from the likes of IFPI by insisting internet providers take action against users suspected of downloading TV, films and music without permission. Users targeted under the provision risk having their internet access suspended if routine scrutiny of their net use raises a red flag. While the intention here is to send a warning signal to downloaders, the fact is that European law doesn’t allow for such incursions on our privacy in the name of protecting business.

The question is what constitutes an appropriate response to radical changes in communications technology, such as we investigated in STEAL THIS FILM, funded by Channel British Documentary Film Foundation and downloadable for free at www.stealthisfilm.com. The social changes brought about by new communications technology — from the printing press to the VCR — have always been resisted by those whose religious, secular, or capitalist empires depended on the previous order. Ultimately, attempts by the entertainment industries to reverse the possibilities suggested by peer to peer technologies will be just as futile as their forbears’.

While quick to accuse and punish, incumbent operators of the media machine have thus far shown themselves negligent in offering positive alternatives to customers increasingly disenchanted with the old models. From the DRM’ed, country-restricted, low-quality BBC iPlayer to the continued attempts to the price of MP3s keep elevated, the industry is staking out the terms of a battle it will lose. What our film asks you to be part of is the creation of a new model, based on a good understanding of technologies, that can let us recognise the many virtues of peer to peer distribution while allowing creators to produce great content. This may be a transformation of the industry as it exists today, but with a little application, it can be one for the better.