Is any of this sounding familiar? If not here's another hint...Pirates.
These are some of the phrases that come to mind when I hear the word pirate. That and images of a big wooden ship, treasure chests, and Johnny Depp of course.
But these are not the pirates that we have to worry about today. Maybe a better word for them is modern day pirates. But regardless of what you call them, they essentially all do the same thing. They steal. They spend their time taking work competed by others and calling it their own or remixing it without giving credit where credit is due. Based on this description it is hard to imagine anyone wanting to keep them around. That is because this is what I bought of them before I read the second chapter of Matt Mason's book The Pirate's Dilemma.
In his book, Mason makes it very clear that he is in full support of pirates and what they do. After reading it I can say that I do have a new found appreciation for them.
Pirates do in a sense steal content, this is true. But they are also making what they steal "better". This is where the idea of remixing comes back. As i mentioned in a an earlier blog, remixing is taking something and adding and subtracting parts of it to make it better. The best example of this is taking a popular song by a well known artist and making an entirely new song with remnants of the original. This is what pirates essentially do. They take originals and make them their own which they then release and take credit for without giving "proper" credit. That in my opinion is the issue that many people have with these pirates. I d not think people are offended by others reinterpreting their art, I think they are offended by the fact that they are not receiving any credit of profit. But really who is to stop these individuals from their own version of freedom of expression. We all know we enjoy the work they put out there whether we admit it or not.
The advances in the Internet have only made the pirates tasks easier. It now takes half the effort for them to access the original content. And it has become even easier to share the altered content online through social media sites. Their messages can now be accessed world wide and now almost nothing can stop them.
Another reason we can thank pirates is the fact that they provide access to free music and streaming video. Anyone who says that they do not download free music or watch movies or television shows online through torrent sites is probably lying. I have trouble believing no one has done this in the past. I will freely admit that I do on a regular basis.
Pirates are a bigger part of our online worlds than we know. But if they were ever to disappear entirely, you can't bet we would all notice.
Godspeed my fellow buccaneers.
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