The Pirate's Dilemma
(Matt Mason began his career as a pirate radio and club DJ in London. He is now a journalist and author voted, blogging at . The following post is published with kind permission and represents Matt's views; this does not necessarily reflect the views of the 91Èȱ¬ or the Digital Revolution production.)
Light has long confused scientists by existing as particles and waves at the same time. These days it seems information is confusing us in the same way, especially those of us who own or control a great deal of it. We no longer understand how to either observe or use it.
When we have create a new piece of information or a new idea, there are two opposing forces at work. At the same time as we are thinking "how can I get this out there?" we're also asking ourselves "how can I benefit from/monetise this?" We want to spread ideas as information, but capitalise on them as intellectual property.
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The first thing we need to understand is that the decision as to how we share "our" information isn't always "ours" to make alone. If a drug company decides it won't share malaria and anti-retroviral AIDS drugs with a developing nation for a price the suffering citizens of that country can afford, and manufacture pirate copies of the drugs anyway in order to save lives. They may be violating patent laws by doing so, but if it's compared to letting thousands of people die needlessly, it's clearly the lesser of two evils. If an industry dependent on physical information, distribution bottlenecks and artificial scarcity decides to ignore more efficient ways of distributing the information it considers its property, pirates will step into the breach and highlight the fact that there is a better way for us to do things.
Piracy is the sharp end of innovation, innovation by any means necessary. Large oligopolies control most of our industries and governments. . According to , roughly two-thirds the world's 150 largest economies aren't nations, but corporations. We all know the system doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to, yet continue to think of this inefficient system we have as 'the free market'. Pirates upend inefficient systems, they take order and create short-term chaos, but often the long-term result of piracy on a large scale is a better system - a more efficient way of doing things. Pirates created many of our established orders out of chaos, and now that these industries are becoming inefficient in the face of new technologies, chaos is being created once again.
From CEOs to struggling artists, in everything from health care to entertainment to education, many of us are being challenged by the problem of others sharing and using our intellectual property without permission. This challenge requires a change of attitude, because sometimes piracy isn't the problem, it's the solution. You see, piracy is really a market signal - an early warning system, a warning that all too often goes ignored by established industries. Whether we consider ourselves pirates or professionals, we're all competing in the same space.
When pirates enter our market spaces, we have two choices: We can throw lawsuits at them and hope they go away. Sometimes this is the best thing to do. But what if those pirates are adding value to society in some way? If these pirates are really doing something useful, people support them, and the strong arm of the law won't work. The pirates will keep coming back and multiplying no matter how many people are sued. And the truth is, if lawsuits become a core component of your business model, then you no longer have a business model.
Because, in these cases, what pirates are actually doing is highlighting a better way for us to do things; they find gaps outside the market, and better ways for society to operate. In these situations the only way to fight piracy is legitimise and legalise new innovations by competing with pirates in the marketplace. Once the new market space is legitimised, more opportunities are created for everyone. Pirates present us with a choice. We can either fight them in the courts, or match them play for play in the marketplace. To compete or not to compete, that is the question; that is the pirate's dilemma.
Light has long confused scientists by existing as particles and waves at the same time. These days it seems information is confusing us in the same way, especially those of us who own or control a great deal of it. We no longer understand how to either observe or use it.
When we have create a new piece of information or a new idea, there are two opposing forces at work. At the same time as we are thinking "how can I get this out there?" we're also asking ourselves "how can I benefit from/monetise this?" We want to spread ideas as information, but capitalise on them as intellectual property.
Ìý
The first thing we need to understand is that the decision as to how we share "our" information isn't always "ours" to make alone. If a drug company decides it won't share malaria and anti-retroviral AIDS drugs with a developing nation for a price the suffering citizens of that country can afford, and manufacture pirate copies of the drugs anyway in order to save lives. They may be violating patent laws by doing so, but if it's compared to letting thousands of people die needlessly, it's clearly the lesser of two evils. If an industry dependent on physical information, distribution bottlenecks and artificial scarcity decides to ignore more efficient ways of distributing the information it considers its property, pirates will step into the breach and highlight the fact that there is a better way for us to do things.
Piracy is the sharp end of innovation, innovation by any means necessary. Large oligopolies control most of our industries and governments. . According to , roughly two-thirds the world's 150 largest economies aren't nations, but corporations. We all know the system doesn't work quite the way it's supposed to, yet continue to think of this inefficient system we have as 'the free market'. Pirates upend inefficient systems, they take order and create short-term chaos, but often the long-term result of piracy on a large scale is a better system - a more efficient way of doing things. Pirates created many of our established orders out of chaos, and now that these industries are becoming inefficient in the face of new technologies, chaos is being created once again.
From CEOs to struggling artists, in everything from health care to entertainment to education, many of us are being challenged by the problem of others sharing and using our intellectual property without permission. This challenge requires a change of attitude, because sometimes piracy isn't the problem, it's the solution. You see, piracy is really a market signal - an early warning system, a warning that all too often goes ignored by established industries. Whether we consider ourselves pirates or professionals, we're all competing in the same space.
When pirates enter our market spaces, we have two choices: We can throw lawsuits at them and hope they go away. Sometimes this is the best thing to do. But what if those pirates are adding value to society in some way? If these pirates are really doing something useful, people support them, and the strong arm of the law won't work. The pirates will keep coming back and multiplying no matter how many people are sued. And the truth is, if lawsuits become a core component of your business model, then you no longer have a business model.
Because, in these cases, what pirates are actually doing is highlighting a better way for us to do things; they find gaps outside the market, and better ways for society to operate. In these situations the only way to fight piracy is legitimise and legalise new innovations by competing with pirates in the marketplace. Once the new market space is legitimised, more opportunities are created for everyone. Pirates present us with a choice. We can either fight them in the courts, or match them play for play in the marketplace. To compete or not to compete, that is the question; that is the pirate's dilemma.
Comment number 1.
At 28th Jul 2009, SheffTim wrote:"When we have created a new piece of information or a new idea, there are two opposing forces at work. At the same time as we are thinking "how can I get this out there?" we're also asking ourselves "how can I benefit from/monetise this?" We want to spread ideas as information, but capitalise on them as intellectual property."
Not necessarily always the latter 'how can I benefit from this?'. Some people are much more altruistic than that.
Matt (I assume he's being deliberately provocative) is essentially arguing that innovation and change - by any means necessary :- legal or illegal - are a necessary (even essential) part of modern capitalism; presumably some of today's Pirates will be tomorrows global brands that in turn will be challenged by ruthless new upstarts.
To continue the pirate theme, the only argument I see here is for a return to 16th century - anything goes - capitalist values.
Let's not forget that the global superpower of most of the 16th century was Spain; busy plundering it's newly acquired (by force) colonies in America.
The Pirate upstarts were Drake, Hawkins and co that thought nothing of robbing Spanish treasure ships and, as a by-line, founding Britain's trade in buying African slaves to supply the American colonies with, whilst looking for lands they could plunder themselves.
It could be argued that Matt really represents an ethos that requires six global companies (it doesn't really matter which six) controlling what we consume, and keeps medicines out of the hands of those too poor to pay for them. After all, piracy is really all about who gets the opportunity to exploit everyone else.
Perhaps what we really need is a new ethos that is more altruistic, and less about pirate greed and interest in seizing power.
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