The European Union (EU) is doubling down on intellectual property (IP) in such a way you’d think its protection by any means necessary was one of the troubled bloc’s founding principles.
After the issue of IP played a prominent role in a highly controversial and divisive EU legislation known as the Copyright Directive, here comes the agitprop movie to support the principle as a whole.
Techdirt wastes no time in calling it “The Dumbest Propaganda Film Ever.”
The EU seems to be making a Herculean effort here of linking human creativity with intellectual property – the latter of which has been, in the big picture of our civilization, a wholly recent development. And one might argue, one of the least useful products of human creativity.
The article notes IP law professor Sarah Burstein’s amusement on Twitter: “Because everyone knows human creativity & innovation did not exist until patents were invented in the 15th century.”
But, in EU’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) view of how real life – and also how successful propaganda work – our world teeming with innovation and creativity as its core, natural component, if need be against all the odds – would simply be “a drab” old place without IP patents.
Could those activists fighting to prove that strict and unreasonable IP enforcement achieves the opposite – a world without much creativity – be persuaded by EU’s latest effort?
The Techdirt article links to both the 16-second promo IPO put out on Twitter and the whole ten-minute thing on YouTube. The basic premise is that the IP is the thing we humans have to thank for the intellectual richness of our world.
Unlike many other pieces of content well worth the interest of the public that have been removed from YouTube this week, the EU movie has not.
But, according to the report, there’s bad news if you decide to go ahead and watch “IPIDENTICAL: Imagine a world without creativity.” It’s the ten minutes of your life “that you will not get back,” Techdirt warns.
And who knew: the creator chose to turn off the comments.
Not to mention that the video itself was not published under the copyright license. Reason? Propaganda is not about sales. It’s about reach – which on YouTube and Twitter the EU have. As for being persuasive – well, that possibility’s flatly dismissed here.
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