In praise of pirates

Matt Mason has developed this informative and slick film to promote his book The Pirates Dilemna.

The thesis of his book is that while industry rages against piracy, it's actually driven a lot of innovations, ranging from online music downloads, to the more life changing production of cheap anti-retroviral medicines in places like India.

"Are pirates terrorists or freedom fighters?", asks Matt Mason in his promo film. "They can hurt businesses, but they can also help them. They can hamper society, or make things better. Which side are you on? Will you fight the rebellion, or become part of it?"

If you've got five minutes, this short video is well worth watching.

Hat tip - Living Brands

Post-script: Matt Mason is offering electronic versions of his book for download, at whatever price you wish to offer:

"By treating the electronic version of a book as information rather than property, and circulating it as widely as possible, many authors such as Paulo Coelho and Cory Doctorow actually end up selling more copies of the physical version.

"Pirate copies of The Pirate’s Dilemma are out there online anyway, and they don’t seem to have harmed sales. My guess is they are helping. To be honest, I was flattered that the book got pirated in the first place."