Sometimes you're reminded why Google will be worth a trillion dollars before the rest of us have got out of bed.
When it comes to public presentation, the company 'gets it'. For example at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where rivals strained for 'coolness' with a parade of Hollywood stars, Google trumped them all with a Robin Williams adlib routine and a self-driving car on stage.
The UN's Internet Governance Forum in Athens is a rather more sedate affair. At times it could certainly do with Williams to liven things up.
Anyway, at a workshop today on copyright and access knowledge, Andrew McLaughlin, director of international policy at Google, immediately won friends by daring to entertain them. He logged on to a viral videos website and showed the audience a parody movie trailer for The Shining starring Jack Nicholson.
The video is made up entirely of clips from Stanley Kubrick's copyrighted 1980 film, but with a specially added voiceover and edited in such a way that it ingeniously ceases to be a horror movie and becomes instead a heartwarming family comedy.
'Is this the sort of thing "fair use" should be covering?' asked McLaughlin, referring to the law which allows material to be referenced for purposes such as criticism or parody. 'If it makes money does that change the equation?'
He put the first question to the vote. A few delegates, including Microsoft's Fred Tipson, deemed the short video in breach of copyright. A huge majority judged that it was fair use and shouldn't trouble the lawyers.
What do you think? You can watch 'Shining parody' here: www.liquidgeneration.com/Media/Default.aspx?MediaId=1680
