Which is why I have to steal it”
At the cost of radically departing from the usual academic tone of this blog, I will attempt to link the basic theme of the movie with general notions of copyright, without divulging anything in the way of spoilers.
The basic premise of the 
movie is that there exists a group of individuals skilled in the art of ‘extraction’ – stealing valuable secrets and ideas from deep within the subconscious, when a person is in a dream state. The movie is centered around Dom Cobb (played by DiCaprio), a thief who enters the dreams of others to obtain information and ideas that are otherwise inaccessible. Of course, the actual plot revolves around Cobb and his team doing the opposite – planting an idea, instead of stealing one, in someone’s mind (hence the title ‘Inception’) for their own selfish motives, but the basic premise provides enough to talk about.
People tend to cling to their ideas. Christopher Nolan (the director) seems to have appreciated this fact remarkably well, and whether that was the intended message or not, it is something that was reinforced, in my mind at least, as I walked out of the theatre. The hoarding of ideas often serves as a contentious issue in copyright law and innovation debates and with good reason.
I say, let us unleash the Dom Cobbs of the world into the minds of dreamers. Let them extract all the ideas (good, bad and ugly) and bring them to the center table for people to pick their favourite ones and evolve meaningful expressions from them. In fact, let’s have multiple expressions of the very same idea so that innovation and creativity develops and ideas aren’t left half-baked in the oven.
Of course, some may contend that the very existence of an idea in one’s mind (whether in a dream or conscious state) gives one a pre-emptive right to build upon that idea and explore different ways of expressing it, thereby securing protection by means of copyright at a later stage. But is that really what copyright law is about? Nobody can stake a claim to an idea. Copyright law will look the other way and high-five Cobb and his team. The very purpose of copyright is not to allow monopolisation of ideas to the exclusion of others, but rather to encourage people to create new work from crude, primitive and raw ideas. The way I see it, there can be no ‘theft’ of ideas, per say. It’s a different matter if those ideas are expressed in a crystalline form in some way or the other and then stolen, but that isn’t always the case.
If there is still some disagreement on the benefits of sharing ideas, let me direct you to a slogan that I recently came upon, coined by famed motivational speaker Paul Arden – ‘Don’t Covet Your Ideas‘. In his book, It’s Not How Good Your Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be he suggests that it is always better to give away your ideas for free and stay hungry for new ones. I reproduce a few interesting extracts from his book sourced from here:
“Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you.
The problems with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually you’ll become stale.
They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s. They are out there floating by on the ether. You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.
If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.
Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.
Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership.”
Whether you agree with everything he says or not, there are some valuable lessons to be learnt.
Let’s share ideas willingly. Sharing will help find others who may be able to use them better than one could by one’s own effort, and both will eventually benefit. Let’s give DiCaprio and his team (and possibly copyright lawyers who fight futilely for the protection of ideas instead of concentrating on copyrightable expressions) a well-deserved rest!
(On a side note, I highly recommend watching this film, which is earning rave reviews and whispers of several Oscar nominations)
[Image from here]
I agree. The way I see it, all human knowledge has been built on the foundation of the work of others. From the most rudimentary thing to the most complex activity no man is island who has produced every component of his creation without relying on prior knowledge. Further, it is inane to demand this standard of people. Not only is it counter productive but also ridiculous to ask every auto manufacturer to start from the invention of the wheel. A part of me feels that copyrighting in a sense stagnate growth because unlike our ancestors by not allowing access to our addition to a discipline we are having the cake and eating it too. But I am also cognizant of the lack of incentive argument that would stem from not allowing for copyright. At the end of the day I guess all we can conclusively say is that any legal regime must find a balance between ensuring all creativity does not die, at the same time inventors get their due.
Well… when I was in law school.. often in the intra college moots, there would be a tough competition and speakers wouldn’t share their arguments…but a few lazy kinds who wished to ride on other people’s hard work always used to say – “well, it may be your idea but I developed it further, so dont say I copied it…”
Initially I would always discard such comments as inflated words…but after reading your post.. I believe that this statement captures the very essence of copyright law…the one who is “inspired” by the idea and develops it himself (in an indirect manner) has given to the world a new idea…
Dear Amlan, i may agree with you for the first part you can’t claim copyright over your ideas, but yes i am sure i am not willing to part with idea and neither are most people. I would like to think them as competitive edge over the others. Ides are extension of fantasies are sometime controlled to achieve a desired end in certain cases. So i guess only certain ideas have ability to convert as reality.
“Give away your ideas”
I’ld beter say : Sell your ideas, then think up for more
🙂