Teaser for Pirate's Dilemma TV show

Matt Mason, author of The Pirate's Dilemma, sez, "Jesse Alexander (producer of Heroes and Lost) and I have been working on turning The Pirate's Dilemma into a TV show, we've just put a teaser up for what that show might look like here: Jesse read the book and saw the pirates I talked about from the worlds of youth culture as real life heroes - people with no special powers who managed to to turn society and old business models upside down with superhuman strength. We connected and started working on this idea, along with John Carluccio and Mark Kotlinski from CurrentTV. The trailer is an early sketch of where we are going with this.

"Also I finally got my publishers to put the book out as a pay-what-you-want PDF!" Link to video, Link to downloadable PDF (Thanks, Matt!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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CastanhasDoPara

Under a black flag we shall sail.
insect_hooves

The hearts and minds are ARRRRS!
Lewis Haidt

Thanks Cory. BTW, I didn’t get the Fullbright to study the Pirate Party, but I’m may try again next year.

Bad, bad, bad Pirates!!!

Esp. all those Jews who founded Hollywierd….
JDspeeder1

Yo ho ho and and bottle of ROMs!
travelina

I’m rooting for the Jankes!
eustace

Not a single mention of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. How disappointing.
Zantan

Could someone link me a more systematic, fact driven defense of piracy?
Antinous

Rum, sodomy and the lash. What more convincing do you need?
Scarybug

The modern flash game industry co-opts piracy into its business model. Portals and advertisers pay developers to put links in their games, so when the game is “stolen” by turn-key portal sites, it spreads the links all across the electroweb.
gwijthoff

Has anyone actually read this book, The Pirate’s Dilemma? Check out Mason’s disclaimer: “First things first: some acts of piracy are quite simply theft. Every year industry loses billions to piracy. Companies suffer, artists and creators lose their earnings, and people lose their jobs” (36).

The gauge of ‘revolutionary’ success in each of Mason’s examples of “punk capitalism” is how much money the ‘pirate’-spirited entrepreneur made. This book is only a manual for how media conglomerates can co-opt youth movements. It has nothing to do with actual piracy, only with how to attach a commodifier to various subcultures.
Spinobobot

A simple argument:

1. It is permissible (or, some would argue, obligatory) to break unjust laws.
2. “Intellectual property” laws are unjust.
3. Therefore, we may (and arguably should) violate “intellectual property” laws.

(2 requires further support, and is probably too sweeping. Suffice to say that the current regime of intellectual property laws are by and large unfair and run counter to the common good.)

What makes this struggle different from previous battles against injustice is that violating the law is easier than ever and the consequences (if you’re careful) are minor on non-existent.

Self-interest also dovetails nicely here, because violating the law lets you get all kinds of free stuff!

Corporations can fight all they like, but they will fail. Creating artificial scarcity is the real crime.

ABOLISH INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY! PIRATES OF THE WORLD UNITE!
royaltrux

I finally watched this – it’s really good. Thanks!