Singularity Law

My son, also named Michael, is a budding filmmaker (alright, so is half of LA). About three years ago, when he was a junior at UCLA he and a friend made a short fan film for a Star Wars fan site. The video (called Ryan v. Dorkman) featured a laser sword fight including special effects and sound effect. The video was a modest hit on the website and generated some special effects work for Michael.

Fast forward three years. . . . In April 2006, someone (no one knows who) began posting the video all over the ‘Net. It appeared on Google Video, Youtube, and a number of other sites. Within about 10 days it was #2 on Google Video. And as of today, it has generated over 577,000 viewings on YouTube. Obviously, a flagrant violation of copyright laws. And yet. . .

As a result of all the buzz created by the postings, the boys have had development meetings with a film company, have been contacted by a major talent agency, etc. They are just finishing up a new short film (not a fan film) and have other projects in the works.

What are the lessons from all of this?

First, sometimes the value of a project is not in the copyright per se, but in the promotional value of having the work widely available. Lawyers often have an itchy trigger finger to blast everyone with a barrage of cease and desist letters. But probing deeper, the infringement may be a blessing in disguise. (Of course it helps that these postings were done as a homage to the great work these two did, and not to profit from their works unfairly.)

Second, it shows the power of these emerging collaborative content sites, where the website owner creates the framework and others fill it will content — some compelling, most not. Pre-Internet, a film maker would need to mail out copies of a videotape with a cover letter to anyone who might be interest. Most of these packages wouldn’t make it past the mailroom or would suffer an ignominious demise in the round file (trash can). Today, innovative companies are scouring web sites for new talent. These collaborative content sites have the potential to radically change the way that talented newcomers get in front of agents, publishers, music/movie producers, etc. It becomes less of a “who you know” model for getting to the right people, and more of a “how good are you” model.