The Pirate's Dilemma is a book written by Matt Mason and is all about the impact of youth culture revolutionaries on the intellectual property laws. These youth culture revolutions keep changing the way we live and work which gives them major power, especially because more and more people are starting to notice these changes.
Capitalism and globalization gave rise to opportunities to leak and share information into public domain, beyond anyone's control. This is referred to as piracy.
Pirates change the way we use and share information and by this they change the nature of our economic system, which sort of means they change the world.
This brings up some very important 21st century cultural and economic questions: How do we react to these changing conditions? Are pirates a threat to be battled or are they innovators from whom we should learn from? And do we compete with them? The Pirate's Dilemma is also about how we can become better by recognizing the pirate within ourselves (Mason, 2008).
It all started in the sixties when Punk evolved. Statements were being made: to not remain the same, stay unclassified, nobody owns you, which are all rejections of the capitalized way of thinking. Punk was a reaction to mass culture and offered new ideas for a more personalized worldview. Do it yourself entrepreneurs started to reject authority and hierarchy, and pleaded to only produce as much as we consume, in order to improve the way society operates. Punk had a point. Outdated ideas create limitations, which were not good for anyone. Punk's do it yourself philosophy empowered ordinary people to start creating as a reaction to social problems. Some important pioneers were Richard Hell, The Sex Pistols and Andy Warhol who all presented us new perspectives. There should not be a hierarchy...