This film was interesting and important in regards to how innovation is being suffocated by copy right laws and how protecting “intellectual property” is actually an infringement on the rights of the individual.

However, the way the documentary creator attempted to politicize this issue as a matter of “right” vs “left” was academically irresponsible. Throughout the documentary, capitalism is blamed and demonized as the reason we are becoming less free. That the the role of corporations and their copy right law suing methods is a product of capitalism and a profit driven system. Capitalism in its intended application means for markets to function without the intervention of the state…So is that what is happening here? No. It is quite the opposite. These media corporations are in bed with the state, they use the coercion and force of government to protect their intellectual property, this by definition is called corporatism, not capitalism.

Capitalism requires competition and innovation, that being said, any person on the economic right should argue against the protection of intellectual property. The scenarios mentioned in the film of people being sued and fined for creativity, prove that copy right laws are the antithesis to competitiveness and innovativeness. Libertarian academics (who can be categorized as right wing) are perhaps the biggest opponents to the concept of intellectual property, viewing it as a monopoly privilege backed by government.

Therefore this idea that somehow the protectionism of the current system of copy right law is a product of right wing ideology is undoubtedly arguable. This conflicts with the narrator’s statement earlier in the film that this issue of intellectual property can simply be divided via “left” vs “right”, it is clearly more complex than that.