It seems that as long as there’s been an internet, there’s been conflict regarding piracy. Recently a video has been making the rounds in various internet circles called The Pirate’s Dilemma. If you haven’t seen it, go ahead and give it a quick view before we continue. (video after the break)

The Pirate’s Dilemma

With the advent of the internet all types of new sociological issues have risen as well: proliferation of the digital marketplace, an unquenchable thirst for online text based games (is that one just me?), and of course the free exchange of information from one person to another (or many). The video makes a great case for the justification of cyber piracy. Many of the arguments Matt Mason makes lend themselves toward complete rationalization of illegal distribution. According to him, without the innovation of “pirates” throughout history, we wouldn’t have Hollywood, the country it resides in, iTunes, the New York Yankees, or YouTube. The idea of practicing piracy almost sounds patriotic.

I, on many occasions, have illegally acquired music and movies in the past. The information is out there and, like all data regardless of its form, I believe it should be easily had by all of the population (not just those affluent enough to obtain it). This core principle has excused for me, in my own mind, the fact that I am stealing from another person or persons.

And it is that, let us not forget: stealing. The definition of stealing in the dictionary is as follows:

1. to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right
2. Barry Zito’s contract with the Giants

That’s exactly what we all do when we fire up our preferred torrent client and start grabbing mass amounts of “property” that isn’t ours. We justify it however we need to. Whether we console our conscious in the knowledge that so many other people are doing it or we tell ourselves that we’ll never get caught, we’re all trying to quell the however small voice in our head that reminds us that ripping the entire Carcass discography for nothing is illegal.

Now, am I about to stand up for the rights of the corporate machine and all those large conglomerates that fleece working citizens to fill their own pockets on a daily basis? Absolutely fucking not. If a business out there in the wide expanses of North America ever figures out how to profit from air, they’re going to do it. Hell, they’ve done it with water already. I’m not trying to suggest that the capitalist construct most of us exist within is entirely evil but no one I know is siding with Exxon when it comes to rising gas prices.

But does that mean we should be justified in stealing gasoline? No, it doesn’t. The distinction that is somewhat obscured in Matt Mason’s short film between the historical pirates detailed and plain stealing is this: innovation. William Fox fled to California to escape licensing fees to make movies. Ripping a copy of Meet the Spartans isn’t anything close to his alleged offense. Unless you’re going to make a movie that does the exact opposite of everything that happened in Meet the Spartans, which would coincidentally produce the greatest film of all time rather than the worst, then you’re just stealing a movie and throwing it in your recycling bin afterwards. Downloading the new Lil Wayne album for you to enjoy while window shopping with all your girlfriends isn’t going to lead to the creation of the next iTunes, it’s simply going to perpetuate your terrible taste in music.

It’s a double standard that exists throughout history; the ends justify the means. As long as you’re progressing toward the betterment of mankind, breaking the law will eventually be forgiven. It’s sad but true. Nobody punished Bill Gates for stealing ideas from IBM, quite the contrary. He’ll go down as one of the technological forefathers and our children’s children will undoubtedly hold his name with high regard. Likewise, few people know of Nikolai Tesla’s contribution to the use and distribution of electricity, they only know of the man who appropriated his work: Thomas Edison. We tend to remember the accomplishments over the faults of our great innovators whenever possible. Great achievements bestow upon average and great men alike the benefit of polite remembrance.

But again, most of us aren’t ripping gigabytes of data in the pursuit of inventing new ways of communication. We’re stealing it and giving nothing back to society or otherwise. That’s the true definition of a pirate and the only dilemma is whether or not to accept the practice as a component of our national morality. There is something to be said for respecting one’s possessions and the toll that a mass disregard for that ideal would have on a nation.

Consider either outcome: a free and open society created by a generation of people who shared information through the dark recesses of the web until the world’s businesses simply gave up trying to prosecute the countless number of offenders OR the eventual near-death of the internet as we know it because the private sector finally enacts a profitable way to handicap peoples’ bandwidth, crippling their ability to share previously distributed information in such a way that hinders any innovative progress regarding the internet and the global community. The latter would be the exact opposite affect that Matt Mason would have us pushing towards.

And it’s already started.

Look, I’m not saying that if we don’t “stop all the downloading” we’re going to reap the punishment handed down by our corporate gods, nor am I concluding that a pay-by-gig bandwidth pricing scheme is a direct result of all our illegal downloading. All I’m trying to point out is that, while it sounds great to consider data stealing on a mass level progressive and innovative, most of us are just ripping 30 gigs of Female\Female\Clown pornography and I can’t see more than a few dirty shirts resulting from all of that.