The existence of intellectual property has its benefits and harms in the movie Passengers. For starters, it does appear to encourage competition, even in the realm of interstellar migration. In a conversation between Aurora and Jim regarding the Homestead Company, the company responsible for the Starship Avalon, the topic of space travel as a whole arises. Aurora brings up how Homestead made "quadrillions'' off of providing travel to their first planet alone, claiming that "[c]olony planets are the biggest business going."[1] Thus, the patents and copyright claims that Homestead has on its products is understandable. Not only do they want to economically prosper from the life-changing technology and transportation they are providing, but they also don't want rival companies to have access to their creations. Homestead has not monopolized the space travel industry; Aurora's comment insinuates this. Their intellectual property claims "stimulate creativity in technology" for other corporations, as they want to develop the next big technology in space travel to one-up Homestead; competition blooms and humanity prospers from this cycle of inventiveness, which was the intended goal of IP overall.[2]
Homestead's intellectual property over the development of their devices and the lack of disclosing any information related to said development does harm Jim and Aurora, however. When Aurora attempts to research how the hibernation pods function so that she get it to put her back to sleep, the Avalon prevents her from accessing any documents that may assist her in this endeavor, stating that "hibernation technology is proprietary."[3] It is true that the owner of an intellectual property has the right to distribute said property to whoever they desire[4]; Homestead has chosen to not distribute information on the inner workings of devices like a hibernation pod to common passengers, and this is legal. However, this lack of information distribution poses ethical questions when it comes to Jim and Aurora's circumstance. Gaining an understanding of how to fully operate a hibernation pod could have saved their lives, so was it morally and legally wrong for this information to be inaccessible to them as a result of IP law?
Interestingly enough, Jim is able to get some information on how hibernation pods operate early on in the film. He finds an Emergency Operating Manual for the device, alongside other technologies featured on the Avalon, such as the "bar service model" (also known as Arthur) and the autodoc.[5] It didn't seem as if he had to tamper with the Avalon's technology or break into a room on the ship to get access to these manuals, despite the fact that each one has the words “Authorized Crew Use Only" printed at the bottom of them. The operating manual on the hibernation pod doesn't end up helping Jim get back to sleep, but his ability to even obtain such a manual poses questions regarding how the crew distributes the intellectual property of Homestead and if they should be allowed to. After all, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) exist in some companies; researchers have estimated that up to 57% of US workers, more than half, are "constrained by an NDA or similar mechanism."[6]
The contents of an NDA can vary, depending on the company, but it wouldn't be unlikely for the crew members of Homestead's Avalon to have a responsibility in protecting the documents containing intellectual property and keeping them away from unapproved eyes. Jim's ability to obtain and read the contents of each Emergency Operating Manual for all the devices on the ship shows their failure in this responsibility. It can be argued that Jim was only able to access the manuals as a result of him being the only human awake on the Avalon at the time. And yet, while he was awake, there were areas on the ship designated for crew members that he was unable to enter, despite his best efforts.[7] Storing the Emergency Operating Manuals in any of those locations would have maintained the Avalon crew's success at protecting Homestead's IP. Thus, the question stands on whether it is the fault of the architects and engineers responsible for the Avalon's design for implementing the storage of Emergency Operating Manuals where they did, or the fault of the crew members for not transferring the manuals to a location where it would be less likely for a passenger to find them.
