The Film
After watching the documentary “Steal This Film II,” I was left asking myself, “what about the other side of the story”? As an aspiring journalist, I refuse to be naive to the fact that this film has a specific agenda. Freedom of information is essential for journalists, but I also think of my own creativity and ideas, and wonder if they have a value?
In the film they compare the internet to highway of free-flowing ideas, and once material has leaked out, there is no going back, that this free enterprise can bring creativity and reach markets otherwise set aside for the “well to do” like successful music composers and artist.
What the film does not cover, are the thousands of movie-industry employees, such as electricians, carpenters, set-designers, security, caterers, etc. that go into the production of these films that are being pirated for free. These employees, go to work, and expect to earn a paycheck at the end of their work week. If movies continue to be pirated, and society accepted the fact that they can now watch movies for free, who would be responsible for paying these employees, or having movies produced in the first place?
In a July article by the Guardian, they investigated the threat to the movie industry by piracy. In it they discovered that ‚“up to a quarter of a million jobs will be at risk if nothing is done about copyright infringement in the UK by 2015.”
This example can be used across a multitude of platforms, including journalism, someone has to pay the bills, someone has to print the pages, have an office space to design the website, and be able to pay to keep the lights on, unless you’re “The Grime Reaper” (a young boy and rapper interviewed in “Steal This Film II), in that case, you probably don’t have to worry about bills, because you most likely still live at home with mom and dad.
Application to Journalism
In the 21st century, the news has now spread to a multitude of platforms, print, web, radio, and television. Sites like, The Huffington Post among others have “aggregated” the news and made the news more accessible to all. But at what cost?
Of course, as a journalist I want as many people to read my articles. Hopefully, I’ll be writing about issues I care passionately about, and the more readers the greater awareness it can bring. I also want to own a house, take vacations, raise a family, and maybe one day have enough to retire. If my ideas and articles are available for free, where is the money going to come from? I think if news organizations want to “aggregate” news from other sources, and put it on their own site, they should have to pay to use it.
Fairey V. AP
Sometimes life is simple. As simple as a photograph. Fairey copied the AP’s photograph and profited (substantially) because of it. He is guilty of copying the image. Fairey, himself is a hypocrite. He tried to sue Texas artist Baxter Orr for copying his work, and adding a surgeon’s mask.
