The Pirate's Dilemma - The Tao of Pirates

Matt Mason's book, The Pirate's Dilemma, openly discusses how youth culture is responsible for shaping and re-shaping remixed culture and consumerism. Mason argues that the pirating of products such as digital entertainment and copyright infringement is necessary for its distribution and improvement on all levels of development. In the second chapter, Mason talks about the history of piracy and it's roots in Britain and the United States in the early 20th century. He discusses how piracy was actually responsible for the TV networks, radio, and web culture people see today. He argues that piracy should be praised for its hand in the progressive evolution of remixed culture that it openly shared world wide. Mason suggests that without piracy, there is no choices to be made in media in the sense that people are limited to the media they consume through financial stability and geographic location. He quotes: "Pirates highlight areas where choice doesn't exist and demand that it does. And this mentality transcends media formats, technological changes, and business models. It is a powerful tool that once understood, can be applied anywhere." (Mason, 2008, 46)

Though some may find areas to disagree with Mason, his arguement on piracy offers something more than just telling people to share "stolen" media. He talks about the momentum of the free people, the boundaries that restrict people from experiencing new forms of media, and how piracy shapes the world we live in today. Mason raises the points of pirate radio in Britain of the 1960's as well as the Sealand sea fort that was used to house "illegal information" in international waters for people willing to pay to keep it there. He uses these examples in history to bring forward a new premise that people need to understand; piracy is a necessity in the development of social media and remixed culture. He suggests that piracy is a valid marketing flaw and that those in that market should consider pirates as a competitor as opposed to a problem.

On the talk of Web 2.0, people are contributing what they want to whoever they want via the web. People are bringing each other all kinds of new media from all over the world every second.

"Pirate radio gave everyone the chance to become DJs, but today a new connection to the internet is all you need to broadcast to the entire world. Individuals with the pirate mentality are using the web to become journalists, comedians, porn stars, prophets, TV producers, and many other things besides, and it is quite conceivable that the media may one day be conquered by pirates all together." (Mason, 2008, 48)

It can be argued that nearly everyone on Web 2.0 is a pirate. What people seem to forget is that this new generation of pirates are not outlaws but instead are a generation of people pressed on sharing new ideas and media through different medium without even knowing it. This is the pirate mentality and when piracy is all about. People no longer have to rely on professional news journalism when all they need to do is look up someone's blog and contribute to it. Whether or not the net is expanding for the better is all relative; but we mustn't forget that all of it is expanding because of people with the pirate mentality.