“Wer hat dem wird gegeben, wer nicht hat der nimmt’s sichs eben” (Brecht) As a member of the D-word community 1 I was involved in last years’ discussions about the ‘Democracy project’ 2, virtually on D-word, and physically at the IDFA Democracy pitching forum. I believe that Western Democracy is facing its biggest crisis around the issue of property and specifically intellectual property. The poorest of our planet survive through sharing, smuggling, squatting, stealing and hospitality. Their survival depends on gift-economies and cannot be sustained through the laws of the ownership society. New technologies offer a potential for new ways of production and distribution of knowledge and culture through archiving 3, file-sharing4 and time-shifting systems5. Nevertheless, existing corporate interests are using their political powers to protect an old business model that is under pressure from these new technologies, and that is propped up by electronic patents 6 and digital rights management. The Western economic model is unsustainable; there cannot be endless growth, endless profit, endless expansion. In order to sustain itself the ownership society needs to expand into new areas and is now colonising our common intellectual and cultural heritage. However this raises serious ethical issues: why would a poor HIV/AIDS patient have to pay for patents in order to receive medication? This colonisation of knowledge is threatening the very idea of Democracy. How can a democratic debate take place if knowledge is restricted to a small group of engineers and corporate interests? True democracy is based on free, informed debate, and supported by cultural exchange, diversity and education. In order for a democratic system to function knowledge has to be free. Therefore we have to move from the ownership society to a gift economy 7, from copyright to hospitality. Godard once said “Let’s not make a film about politics, let’s make a film politically”. Isn’t it time to look for new ways of production and distribution and, when it comes to the Democracy Project wouldn’t it be a brave act and at the same time a significant statement to allow for open online distribution of all material produced under its name? To copyleft 8 all films and media content and make it freely available for everybody to view, remix and redistribute? Adnan Hadzi