Day of the Doc: "Steal This Film"

Steal this film is a documentary about digital piracy and file sharing, two subjects that people often feel as fervently about as they do the death penalty, and for largely the same reasons.

The doc opens with a wonderful statement about intellectual property, comparing it to oil as the new corporate cash cow of the information age. Now I'm sitting on the edge of my seat, giving it my full attention. Alas, this is about as exciting and poignant as the doc gets.

It's well shot, but poorly cut, with cut scenes to random b-roll like the atomic bomb or an old video about computers from the '70s, though I can't figure for the life of me how they tie in. Most of the film is about the case against Pirate Bay, the largest bit torrent host on the Web.

I've read about the case several times before (it was between the US and Sweden and now is relegated to Sweden so far as I gather). The case in interesting, but not quite interesting enough to fill the one-hour doc.

There are some good minds sounding off during the interviews, but the most pertinent things being said are also the most brief, largely overshadowed by what I have to assume is an attempt to lay down some historical groundwork for where file sharing began.

The social and economic implications of digital piracy and file sharing should be of far greater interest to the average citizen than they are, with most people forming knee-jerk opinions about it and regurgitating RIAA and MPAA propaganda as evidence. However, while there is certainly more ground to cover on this topic, I'm afraid that Steal just doesn't do it much justice.

There's still certainly something to be gained from this short film, but it really represents only the tip of the iceberg, and it's the submerged 90% that still seems untouched by films and media in general.