The third film in this series I think did a very good job of showing how the evolution of ideas is more organic than we would perhaps think, with copying, transformation and combining being all part of the natural development of ideas. This leads to a natural question and I was glad that this fourth film went there; specifically, if this is the situation (and I think we have seen it is) then how does that fit with the concept of intellectual property and the endless lawsuits over the smallest bit of things which look, sound or operate a bit like something else? Ferguson lays out the current situation really well in the first two- thirds of the film and I found it interesting because he made it really clear as to the scale of the problem which sat well with the case in the previous film that this cannot sit well with what we have already seen.
The weakness in the film comes after the question "what now?". I was glad that the film didn't end with that (I worried it may) but what I had hoped for was some discussions about what realistically could happen, maybe some examples of how some individuals or groups are trying to break away and, if we don't change, what will be the end result? All of this could have been a strong finish to the film (and project) and it would have been better to not offer an easy answer. Instead the film sort of ends with a rather glib suggestion which, while hopeful, really feels out of step with the more focused documentary feel that the rest of the film had.
As before Ferguson shows up at the end to promote a new project (which I'm pleased to say he has now exceeded his fund-raising goal for). On this occasion I didn't begrudge him as I did with the first two film because you can see the work here but also I think he had a much better structure.
