Tag Archives: Black Market

“Pirates With A Purpose: Promoting Participation in Global Productions.”

22 May

Medosch argues that: “piracy, despite being an entirely commercially motivated activity carried out in black or grey markets, fulfills culturally important functions” (Reader, page 318)

The ongoing debate regarding the issue of Piracy and remix culture in countries all over the world, has been severely exacerbated by the increasing flow of information and the development of Globalization in recent years. In a fast growing world of free software and digital commodities, questions of ownership are often unclear and  frequently disputed between parties, given the commercial appeal to individuals in being able to easily access “a public sphere of legitimately ‘free’ things that could be copied, used, and modified” to gain a competitive edge within the market (Medosch,2008). This largely resulted from the introduction of copyleft licensing systems aimed at combatting Piracy, (or perhaps just diluting and disguising its illegal form) such as the “internationally working non-profit organisation” Creative Commons, as well as the Free Software Foundation’s introduction of the “GNU General Public License”, which as Medosch states “had been adapted by coders worldwide…[and had even] made it into the mainstream of software engineering [by] multinationals such as Sun and IBM. (2008)”

GNU General Public License - 'Free as in Freedom.'

Given the growing desire of content producers worldwide to be – as Medosch (2008) describes – legally allowed to “participate in the free universe by packaging their work” with such codes, many, including Medosch himself decided to “support this legitimate universe of free software and the collaborative ethos behind it.” Medosch, like many others concluded that one of the benefits of an open commons was that it became no longer useful or necessary to be  “fighting the copyright industry with little provocations (2008),” not to mention the appeal to legally create “beautiful islands of free software, [and]  free media(2008).”

Medosch raises a sound argument for the necessity and potential benefits of remixed works and even full blown piracy when one considers that “large international vertically integrated media corporations stifle local production by completely taking over marketing and distribution channels (2008).” The most prominent markets for pirated goods tend to be in Eastern nations, in “economies that capitalist media tends to label as ’emerging.” In nations such as China, India, Taiwan, Brazil and many more, the production and selling of pirated DVD’s, CD’s, VCD’s and multitudes of other counterfeit goods are profound, and as Medosch argues, quite necessary in “giving access to cultural goods which otherwise would be completely unavailable to the vast majority of the people (2008).”

Trailer for “Pirated Copy.” Made in Malaysia, 2006.

An excellent example of how pirated goods benefit such cultures despite their illegal nature, is documented in the Asian film “Pirated Copy.” The film brings awareness to the “suprisingly strong interest the buyers of video CD’s and DVD’s have in ‘art movies,'” or alternative, non-mainstream works that unless circulated within the black-market, they would seldom ever get to view.

In concluding his point of view Medosch states: “In a grossly distorted world of free trade those who capitalism treats merely as cheap labour can use piracy as a counter-hegemonic force by giving them a chance to empower themselves through obtaining information, knowledge and sophisticated productions. (p.318)”

Piracy, in other words, empowers masses of under-exposed people to actively engage in and promote the diverse range of millions of works on offer from all corners of the globe, be it film, music, television, games or software, and therefore satisfies their previously neglected “sophisticated tastes and needs.”

540 Words

Bibliography:

Tags: , , , , , ,