Open Source Cinema - An Open Source Documentary Film about Copyright

Some interesting submission from Lixin, a colleague that worked as an associate producer on Yung Chang's Up The Yangtze, also produced through EyeSteelFilm. Lixin has been doing some filming of the DVD markets of China, both the legitimate and illegitimate kind.

When I originally visited China last year, I was narrowing in on another narrative line - Lessig was travelling through and I was a bit obsessed with the culture differences. Interestingly, China only created a copyright law in '98, after joining the WTO.

Last march ('96) I had thought this was perhaps too far off topic, until meeting Bruce Lehman. Lehman was Bill Clinton's undersecretary of commerce, and is the architect of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and the WIPO Intellectual Property treaties.

It was spelled out for me: In exchange for the implementation of US-style intellectual property laws and the joining of the World Trade Organization, US trade barriers against Chinese goods would be dropped. Quid Pro Quo. This is why you can't step into a store in the US without finding something made in China.

But, as almost everyone knows, this deal hasn't worked out. Walk down any street in Beijing and you'll see pirated CDs, counterfeit watches, jeans, disneyland...

Cory Doctorow explains why in the information age, you can't build an economy by making information harder to copy.