The Simpsons is rightfully considered one of the greatest animated shows to ever grace the airwaves and last night’s “Steal This Episode” will do nothing to change that perception. It covered the issues generated by illegal downloading and was a shining example of how far the show’s creators are prepared to go when covering a topic.
If you don’t want a few spoilers as you intend to watch later, please stop reading now.
The show begins with Homer’s co-workers gathered around the watercooler discussing Radioactive Man’s latest movie. Homer hasn’t seen it and he gets upset that no matter where he goes people are discussing how great it is. Desperate to see the movie, Homer took the entire family to the theater. Sadly it cost a fortune and was riddled with advertising.
“If I wanted to pay for commercials I can’t skip i’d sign up for Hulu Plus,” he complained while launching into a rant that got him ejected from the theater.
Seeing his father’s sadness, Bart taught Homer how to illegally download from the best pirate website around – The Bootleg Bay. His precise instructions were continually interrupted by a PSA-style voiceover explaining how Fox does not endorse piracy.
Back at work, Homer walked in on another water-cooler chat about the latest Bond movie. He hadn’t seen that either but when his colleagues told him to go the theater to see it, he explained that wouldn’t be necessary.
“All I need to see this movie is a laptop and a website based in a country that is really just an offshore oil platform,” Homer said.
This is a delightful reference to The Pirate Bay planning to buy the island nation of Sealand way back in 2007. Groening certainly does his homework.
After showing his colleagues the Bond movie on his laptop, one commented that it was a great experience that combined the fun of the theater with the thrill of stealing. Another said that what the movie industry needs to understand is that the people have needs – brand new, big budget entertainment, in their homes – for nothing. It’s clear that Matt Groening is as happy as ever to take shots at both sides.
What followed was an interesting parallel. Many times in the past The Pirate Bay has made it clear that its mission is to offer ‘culture’ to all. In the show Homer does something similar by opening his own free mini theater for the people of Springfield using movies downloaded from The Bootleg Bay.
However, when Marge later discovered that she’d been watching a pirate movie, she sent a check to Hollywood to pay for the ticket she never bought. This set off a chain of events which saw Homer investigated by the FBI. The size of the movie piracy department next to the drug enforcement office is a clear nod to the resources being expended on piracy-related issues.
Inside the FBI’s movie piracy department was a large bustling nerve center with agents sitting at workstations and a world map glowing with pirate locations. The FBI were clearly going to put a lot of resources into tracking Homer down.
Although most will probably miss it, the next scene almost certainly referenced another important event in file-sharing history. Homer presented a downloaded copy of Cosmic Wars VII, a movie which was clearly meant to be Star Wars. He noted that the copy he was about to show was a leaked version “direct from the computer of an angry editor at a special effects house.”
This inclusion is very interesting. Back in 2005, file-sharing site EliteTorrents was subjected to a massive FBI raid after it offered for download an unfinished ‘workprint’ version of Star Wars Episode III which had obviously originated from an industry pre-production source. While several staff members at Elite were all jailed, no one was ever prosecuted for the actual leak, something which remains highly suspicious to this day.
Before long though, a Kim Dotcom-style raid was being carried out against the animated pirate cinema, complete with plenty of armed officers seeking to intimidate “and stage the prison suicide” of Homer Simpson. He’s taken away to prison but things didn’t go quite to plan, with Homer quickly becoming a fugitive. Desperate for sanctuary he flees to the only place in America that doesn’t care about Internet piracy laws – the Swedish consulate.
“The people of Sweden believe that all movies should be shared freely,” explained Lisa to a confused Marge.
Eventually Homer hands himself over to the many FBI agents massing outside and, like pretty much all big file-sharing cases in the US, later finds himself up in court to answer for his sins.
Overall the episode is a clever one that highlights both sides of the debate. It makes clear that big budget content needs to have a funding mechanism, but even more apparent is the overblown response to the issue encouraged by Hollywood and executed by law enforcement.
Definitely one to watch – which raises another issue of course. Right at the start of the episode Homer found himself pirating movies because the official experience fell short of his expectations. Equally there will be plenty of people wanting to watch this episode who will have no local access to the show. It’s a self perpetuating cycle that cannot be solved with law enforcement.
The release of the episode follows a Fox lawsuit and a $10.5m judgment against a Canadian who ran a Simpsons download portal. Coincidence or….?
