When the Foundations of Power Shift: Intellectual Property in an Age of Instability

“There are moments in societies when the foundations of power begin to move. When that happens, things get Shifty.”

Adam Curtis writer & director of the documentary ‘Shifty’

Adam Curtis’ insight speaks not only to politics and culture but also to intellectual property.

For centuries, intellectual property has been one of the hidden foundations of modern economies. It shapes who controls knowledge, who profits from creativity, and who gains access to the technologies that define our lives.

Yet, like all structures of power, intellectual property is not fixed. Its foundations shift whenever technology, culture, or global events exert pressure. In those moments, the ground beneath businesses, creators, and governments turns unstable—and the “shiftiness” of power becomes visible.

Intellectual Property as a Foundation of Power

Intellectual property law grants legal monopolies over inventions, brands, creative works, and designs. These monopolies are bargains: society rewards innovation with protection but expects eventual disclosure, competition, and access.

Because of this bargain, intellectual property operates as a system of power.

Patents, trade marks, and copyright don’t just protect ideas—they influence markets, medicine, and culture. Entire industries—pharmaceuticals, fashion, film, and AI—stand upon this foundation.

Shifting Narratives of Ownership

Historically, intellectual property was justified by labour: the author or inventor deserved the fruits of their work. But in the digital age, that story is harder to sustain.

• Copying is effortless.

• Open-source and Creative Commons reframe sharing as a cultural norm.

• Indigenous and community knowledge emphasise stewardship rather than individual ownership.

  
  

These competing narratives are reshaping what ownership means.

Intellectual Property as a Political Battleground

At moments of upheaval, intellectual property becomes the terrain of struggle:

• The printing press spurred the first copyright statutes.

• The Industrial Revolution turned patents into weapons.

• The digital revolution destabilised copyright (Napster, YouTube), while today AI pushes boundaries daily.

  
  

Governments intervene when monopolies clash with the public interest. For example, Australian compulsory licences and Crown use.

Intellectual property is never absolute—it is always contested and renegotiated.

Opportunity and Danger in Shifty Times

• Opportunity: Open frameworks can democratise culture; Creative Commons expands access; First Nations intellectual property asserts cultural sovereignty.

  
  

• Danger: Concentrated intellectual property entrenches monopolies, restricts access to medicines, and locks down digital property (e.g., proprietary AI models).

  
  

Instability exposes intellectual property’s real character: a living system of power, constantly in flux.

AI, Deregulation, and Entertainment Co-Productions

Nowhere is this more visible than in entertainment and media, where AI is dismantling old norms at speed. For decades, international co-productions relied on stable allocations of intellectual property —scripts, performances, music, merchandising—that underpinned financing.

AI unsettles the order:

1. Authorship & Copyright Ambiguity Who owns AI outputs—the studio, the toolmaker, or no one? Without clarity, financing models wobble.

   
   

2. Cross-Border Patchwork Some countries deny copyright to AI-generated works, others grant limited rights. A series using AI effects might be protectable in one jurisdiction and quasi–public domain in another.

   
   

3. Guild & Union Frictions Labour disputes highlight fears of digital cloning and job displacement. Some regimes allow “forum shopping,” undercutting protections.

   
   

4. Financing & Insurance Squeeze Banks and insurers demand certainty. If a chain of title is unclear, costs rise and funding dries up—leaving only the biggest players – the ones that are capable of self-finance.

   
   

This is shifting power in practice: contracts bend, labour norms strain, capital retreats.

Conclusion

The emerging turmoil in co-productions shows intellectual property’s foundations in motion. AI deregulation is shaking the structures of financing, ownership, and labour.

That is what Curtis calls “shifty times”—moments where creative possibility and risk collide, and where the distribution of power itself is renegotiated.

Intellectual property, especially in the age of AI and global entertainment, is shifting now—and the world is already feeling the tremors.