Piracy or Innovation?

By BARCODE 2x

There is traditional high-seas piracy that we still hear about from time to time, which is vaguely political, and involves renegades, terrorists really, who rob, loot, shoot, and sink their victims in the middle of the oceans. In boundary waters, there will be anarchy.

There is music piracy, which is a silly term. They might as well call it music terrorism. The resources to 'pirate' and illegally download music are so easy to access, and used by so many people that it is hardly fair to call it piracy. Pirates, by their nature, have to be renegades, outlaws, who do not travel in large numbers. These are music thefts. Theft, or lifting. Copying, is what they are doing, en masse. Piracy involves the stealing of something rare or precious, in its pure form. 'Ripping' is a great term, and fits better. They are opening up the DNA of the music, cloning the product, and distributing. They are reproducing, not stealing.

A new study has shown that most people who steal music are also the ones who buy most of the music online. A music ripper's illegal activities spring from a well-established buying habit. These are not pirates. These are members of a misunderstood global community, people who steal art when perhaps they cannot otherwise afford it. Boundary waters. 

In considering the film Pirate Radio, I thought to myself: who are today's cultural pirates?

With the demise of the analog television, I once thought that this would lead to a lot of really exciting pirate television. But with the broad distribution and ease of internet video, pirate television is obsolete. It is without purpose. Hijacking the airwaves is unnecessary.

Eco-piracy is an idea that I like toying around with. New York's Waterpod was built in the Dumbo area, a floating community built of reclaimed materials. Solar-powered, and growing their own vegetables, this small group of artists created an exclusive, small, hard-to-access community. They were open to tourists, and allowed people on board the docked barge for concerts and such. But space was limited for public involvement. They are pirates, possibly, because they live on the water, and on the boat, they live by their own rules. A contained vessel allows the passengers and crew to make independent choices. Their actions affect the others on the vessel, but the consequences are contained.

Gotham Greens is a similar organization, that is seeking to bypass mass-produced food magnates and teaches city dwellers to grow their own. Vertical farming, a floating greenhouse, rooftop farms. In both of these floating projects, there are issues. The piracy element exists in the freedom of the individuals contained. And the idea of living off the grid. Living off the grid means breaking away and living in self-sustainability, without the aid of consumer utilities or outside assistance.

But these organizations cannot. They still depend on donations of outside products. They cannot grow enough, or cool fast enough for the people on board. They are experimenting with futuristic designs, living on the boundary, but still inextricably tied to mainstream society.

I have always longed to see the Burning Man Festival. This desert oasis of creativity happens every year, and there is no money changing hands, no serious crime, and no rules whatsoever. A small community has principles. Clothing is optional, music is everywhere. This is pirate community-building. This is a refugee camp, an escape from society. The Grateful Dead were like that. A roving fleet of cars and vans pursued the band, set up in campgrounds and parking lots, to create mini-cities. Law was eliminated, and violent crime was too. The free flow of drugs, goods, and services took the pressure off everyone. This was a pirate community that floated like an ameoba. And yes, they were a drain on the resources. But they also pumped a lot of money into local economies.

Arts organizations are pirates, of a kind. Like the floating disk jockeys of Pirate Radio, they are adrift and remote, requiring vast public assistance. But how can large museums, theatres, and other arts institutions sleep at night knowing that they are competing for the same charity dollar as worldwide hunger relief? A recent event on Facebook showed where the public comes out on all of this. A $50,000 prize was given to the not-for-profit cause on Facebook that could garner the most unique donations within a month. Though various arts groups participated, none were in the top 10 charities. None. The lesson here is that humanitarian aid ought to get the funding ahead of anything else. Bringing arts into the charity fold is unfair to all. The arts are not given what they need, and likewise, anything they do receive is seen as being taken from somewhere else. This will never be a sustainable model.

Imagine a boat full of refugee children being ransacked by a boat full of pirate artists. Or imagine replacing the Waterpod with a floating homeless shelter.

Innovation is key to creating sustainable culture. Not just sustainable resources. Sustainable culture is something else altogether. Pirates loom around the edges of the culture, gaining access and taking the resources. The man in his backyard with a telescope who discovers a comet, he has pirated something very precious. He is a private citizen who was innovative enough, and dedicated enough, to find something that no one else could. With the open-source model of innovation, and innovative technologies developing in global online circles, piracy is a bit necessary. We all have to find a bit of the pirate in us to think independently. The open source model awakens the adventurer in all of us. The ability to manufacture products and ideas at home, this is a kind of piracy. Buying local produce en masse means we are using our money independently. We may hurt the large corporations in the process, but we see the immediate benefits of our choice.

It seems that pirates are the ones who steal from the wealthy corporate structures. They do not violate our freedoms. They open up the pathways, perhaps, to free the rest of us. The internet is an inexaustible resource for information. Pirates do not affect commerce. If the music industry is collapsing, it is because they have failed to be innovative enough to cope with the changes in technology and culture. Music became too expensive. And there were new channels for distribution. Myspace and youtube were free resources for music lovers. It was a farmer's market of media. To prosecute the listeners is a failure to understand them. The ship has sailed. The pirates took it over.

The Eagles sell their record at WalMart to get proper distribution. The British Pirate Radio DJs did not risk their lives just to see Rock n' Roll go corporate like that. This is the music of revolt, and sexual liberation. Piracy is necessary for preserving Rock's outlaw image. The person who buys AC/DC's new record exclusively at WalMart, then rips it and illegally distributes it, he is a real buccaneer. There are music lovers the world over who would gladly call him Captain.

Like the terrorists of Baader-Meinhof, the common everyday pirate is someone looking to get involved in structural change, following their own rules. They may not even realize the importance of their actions. The German government of the 1970s contemplated internal changes it could make, to create a better atmosphere where terror would not be necessary. We could live more sustainably to create an environment where piracy was not an issue. An environment and market where no one would turn to a life of piracy. We may live to see it, if even on a small scale.