Absolute absolution

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: Grant this book its air of impunity. It’s uplifting. It’s heady. It’s quaint. Almost as if the ink of its printed text has been remixed with whiffs of argon (Ar) or something. Whatever it is, read it. In essence, The Pirate’s Dilemma is the earnest testimony of a one-time pirate radio jockey in favour of intellectual piracy, ownership particulars be damned. It is also a celebration of the doughty remix, the musical wonders of which waft into Indian ears nowadays with Chaar Din, a restively youthful remake of an elegiacal old classic.

Matt Mason, the ex-pirate who wrote this book, doesn’t forget to nod in the general direction of John Perry Barlow (of Eff) and Frans Johansson (The Medici Effect), whose influence is evident, but relies a little too heavily on his own musical influences to underscore his case. He casually credits the coloured-hair punk rock scene of the 1970s with virtually all the rebellions that came after it, busting barriers to give the world such faves of freedom as personal computers, open-source software and MP3 music. Most of the guys who came up with all this, he contends, were just do-gooders who didn’t see why it’s theft if you take something (say, a tune or snippet of software code) without depriving anyone of it.

Mason’s proposition: piracy produces innovation. Why, that’s exactly how America got its act together, stealing stuff from Europe during the Industrial Revolution. In fact, the word ‘yankee’ comes from the Dutch word ‘Janke’ for pirate. And if William Fox hadn’t fled to the Californian Wild West to escape Thomas Edison’s patent on film technology, there wouldn’t have been any 20th Century Fox. Piracy, in short, is a long honoured practice, its silken flag fluttering with renewed pride in an array of markets old and new. Just look at Internet music downloads. Millions out there are at it. As Gnarls Barkley sang in 2006, you’re crazy if you think you can control it.