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In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, a worker carries confiscated pirated publications to be destroyed in Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province, April 20, 2008. Author Matt Mason writes about how youth culture trends and modern technology have affected today’s society in his book “The Pirate’s Dilemma.” / AP-Yonhap |
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
When you think of pirates, you think of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, the guy selling bootleg DVDs in the street or even the kid next-door downloading the latest Coldplay album from the Internet.
In his book ``The Pirate's Dilemma,'' former pirate DJ Matt Mason proposes the idea that being a pirate is not as bad as the government or big business might say.
Who is a pirate anyway? Mason defines a pirate as ``essentially anyone who broadcasts or copies someone else's creative property without paying for it or obtaining permission.''
While he admits that some acts of piracy are theft, Mason says that ``one man's copyright terrorist is another's creative freedom fighter: many forms of piracy can transform society for the better.''
When Thomas Edison invented the phonographic record, musicians called him a pirate for trying to steal their work. Major pharmaceutical companies branded Dr. Yusef Hamied a pirate because his Indian company produced cheaper copies of anti-HIV drugs for as little as $1 a day, versus their prices of $27 a day.
Mason notes that piracy has been going on throughout history, and should be encouraged because it spurs innovation.
In the 19th century Industrial Revolution, the United States ``employed pirated know-how to industrialize.'' Europeans started calling Americans as ``Janke,'' the Dutch slang word for pirate, which is now pronounced as ``Yankee.''
``From the birth of America to the birth of the Internet, it is often left to pirates to chart the winds of change and plot better courses for the future. When pirates start to appear in a market, it's usually an indication that it isn't working properly… Piracy transforms the markets it operates in, changing the way distribution works and forcing companies to be more competitive and innovative,'' he said.
Mason shows how youth culture trends like punk, hip-hop, disco, graffiti, remix and the open-source movement have ``evolved into powerful forces that are changing the world.''
Today, people, companies and governments are facing the ``pirate's dilemma.''
``How should we react to the changing conditions on our ship? Are pirates here to scupper us or save us? Are they a threat to be battled or innovators we should compete with and learn from? To compete or not to compete _ that is the question _ perhaps the most important economic and cultural question of the 21st century,'' he says.
One of the best examples of this dilemma is the music industry's struggle to fight piracy. Record companies have fought file sharing on the Internet, by suing illegal downloaders and by introducing software to make it difficult for people to copy CDs, but without much success.
Instead of fighting the problem, Mason said the best way is to compete, as Apple did. Apple legalized music downloading with its hugely successful iTunes, proving music no longer needed a physical system of distribution.
On the other hand, while CD sales continue to decline, the demand for live performances and legal downloads has been increasing.
``The music industry's response to the `pirate's dilemma' is a lesson all others need to learn from. Movies, video games, magazines and newspapers have all suffered losses as they make the transition to business models based on electronic distribution. The music industry found out the hard way that resistance is futile. The best way to stop piracy, as Apple's Steve Jobs said, is to compete with it,'' Mason said.
The open-source culture is changing the way businesses are being run. Take for instance, Linux that distributes its core software for free, but makes money from selling customized software.
With newspapers, games, music, movies, software and TV shows available on the Internet for free, Mason challenges companies to think outside the box and find new ways of competing.
``As we learn to pirate more of the things we buy and sell, many industries will face short-term uncertainties. But looking at the history of youth movements, the social experiments that took hold by figuring out new ways to share, remix and produce culture, in the long term, the benefits of this new, more democratic system, seem clear. It is down to every one of us to approach the pirate's dilemma from our own unique perspective and to apply the best option to our particular situation,'' he says.
The book offers fresh insights on various youth culture trends. What makes it even more interesting are the anecdotes about 50 Cent, the Sex Pistols, FUBU founder Daymond John, graffiti artist Taki, as well as a Jamaican man who invented the remix in the 1960's and a nun who inspired disco parties.
Incidentally, the book's cover features a stylized pirate logo that uses a light bulb instead of a skull, on a ``P" keyboard button. Korea-born Ji Lee, an art director at Droga5 Agency, designed the logo.
True to the book's principles, the logo is available on the Web site www.thepiratesdilemma.com where you are encouraged to take it and create new versions.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr | |
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