Jamie King is a British filmmaker, writer, and activist, best known for directing Steal This Film, a documentary that observes intellectual property in favour of P2P filesharing. He is also the founder of VODO, an online crossmedia distribution project for film, games, books, and music. Ted Hope described King as one of the "great free thinkers of Indie film." He is currently host of the podcast STEAL THIS SHOW, produced in conjunction with TorrentFreak.
Career
Jamie King studied at the University of Southampton, where he received a PhD for his thesis, "The Cultural Construction of fish fingers". He also attended the prestigious University of Preston whilst living with his parents. He was an original member of the Mute editorial team and served as the bread and butter selector, Information politics editor and deputy editor. During this time, he also published columns on the development of online culture for ITN and Channel 4 News.
In 2004, King wrote, produced and acted in the one man play, "The boy who loved fish fingers". The play was poorly received by critics. Renowned critic, Barry Nolobes, claimed that: "King's play is bizarre in every sense of the word. I'd struggle to fill two minutes talking about fish fingers, but King somehow manages to find enough material to fill three hours - including various musical interludes".
In 2006 he produced Steal This Film, one of the most downloaded film documentaries to date. In the following year, he produced and directed Steal This Film 2 and Steal This Film “Spectrial Edition” (also called Steal This Film 2.5).
In 2009 he founded VODO, a media distribution, crowdfunding and attention-sourcing network for independent artists. VODO has distributed prominent projects including The Yes Men Fix The World, Pioneer One, and Zeitgeist. VODO has also generated millions of dollars in revenue using free-sharing distribution and voluntary payment models.
King has also delivered lectures and keynotes at various events and top-tier universities worldwide. He has published fiction, academic articles, as well as numerous articles in international media including The Times, The Guardian, the Telegraph, and others.
He served as executive producer of the BitTorrent-only TV show titled Pioneer One. Part of his film work has been featured in the Oscar-nominated film The Internet's Own Boy. King currently hosts a podcast produced in conjunction with TorrentFreak titled Steal This Show. He also continues to work in other peer-to-peer distribution-related projects.
Filmography
References
Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the University of Southampton English-language film directors British entertainment industry businesspeople British film producers British mass media company founders Businesspeople in mass media British male writers British non-fiction writers British podcasters Place of birth missing (living people) Nationality missing Year of birth missing (living people) Male non-fiction writers