I was lucky enough to meet Jamie King the producer behind Steal this Film 1, 2 and 2.5, who went to Stockholm in 2006 to interview and capture on film the arrests of the people behind Pirate Bay.

He would be more than willing to tell anyone that the real interest behind the film is not how cool these guys are but the way that the film was distributed - directly through the same torrent site and others. Why is that interesting you may ask, well because more money is actually spent on the marketing, promotion and distribution than on the actual production of films. And with Steal this Film having 6 Million downloads it's a cut out the middle man and go direct to market idea that could change the whole movie industry. This film is so important it is even making it on to college media curriculums.

So many of us get our music for free these days, in fact so many musicians are willing to give away their music to get you to listen to it, just so you will pay through the nose to see the stage show and buy the merchandising. That is where the money is, not in the 74p (and dropping) from iTunes.    

Jamie has now started a new project VODO supported by the Channel 4 British Documentary Film Foundation and a list of torrent sites who are willing to promote and distribute through their bittorrent system the very same Documentaries which can't find a distribution deal. The Documentaries will be distributed free of charge and the producers are willing to do so just so they can get there work seen.

Jamie King "First, we're planning to finish off the STEAL THIS FILM project with STEAL THIS FILM, THE MOVIE. This will comprise material from STEAL THIS FILM I and II and some road movie style footage of us interacting with people around the film, showing it here and there, and having arguments. This might sound a bit reflexive but the discussions produced by STF can be quite lively and we thought we might get a bit of that liveliness into the film.

THE OIL OF THE 21ST CENTURY

'Intellectual property', said Mark Getty, 'is the oil of the twenty first century'. Getty is chairman of Getty Images and one of the world's largest intellectual proprietors. His comment offers a unique perspective on the conflicts evolving around information as it penetrates and shapes every aspects of our lives -- from nutrition to medicine, from markets to civil liberties.

This film explores those conflicts. Established and developing economies wage war on each other through restriction and promulgation of information, with devastating consequences on lives and ways of life. Nations like Britain and the US, once information 'pirates' themselves, now support the rights of massive corporations to protect their pharmaceutical patents at the expense of lives in developing countries. Meanwhile, burgeoning Asian economies exploit difficulties with enforcement to create multi-billion dollar pirate industries that are increasingly seen as a real threat to Hollywood.

THE OIL OF THE 21st CENTURY presents five real scenes from the war of information raging in the world, linked by discussions from leading sociopolitical, economic and cultural thinkers and activists. Both through historical analysis and exposition of current events, THE OIL OF THE 21ST CENTURY uncovers the hidden life of intellectual property and argues that the way in which we regulate the production and flow of information in the world will have critical implications for our society's growth and development.