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Microsoft wants your thoughts

Have you heard the one about Microsoft's recent announcement of a short film competition? Titled Thought Thieves, the contest is about intellectual property abuse (though not the abuse you may have in mind):

Thought Thieves is about people stealing and profiting from your creation or innovation. Think about it: how would you feel if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else? What would you do? We want to know! Send us your short film on intellectual property theft by 1st July 2005 for your chance to win £2,000 worth of film and video equipment vouchers.

Microsoft wants to pitch piracy as a plagiarism issue, but if you take this at face value, who the target thief supposed to be? Negativland? The Guerilla News Network? With pirated movies -- truly pirated movies -- there's no question of who the author is (though the question of who's getting paid is another matter entirely).

I don't know about you but I think it'd be terribly funny if Microsoft's contest judges got more than they bargained for -- piles and piles of videos, works critical of the copyright cartel as well as random found clips, bootlegs, and orphaned films. Calling all pranksters...

(Thanks, Ed Halter)