Pirates Archive

3

The Top Five Reasons Why People Pirate

By
Adam Shaftoe
– June 7, 2012Posted in: Books, Movies, Television, The Daily Shaft, Video Games

The other night I found myself wanting to indulge in a childhood pleasure: John Christopher’s The Tripods trilogy. With my copy of the series long since lost to time, I did a quick search to see if there were any readily accessible e-book versions of the first novel in the triad, The White Mountains.

As a Kindle owner, the freely available e-pub editions of the book aren’t that useful. So I weighed the pros and cons before taking to Amazon. That’s when I saw this. (You you may need to click to enlarge)

WTF?

My rage raneth over. How does the e-book cost more than the paperback? I took to twitter, facebook, tumblr, and google plus to voice what I saw as a grave injustice. I cited this particular example as the #3 reason why people pirate things. Jon Eric, a google plus friend of mine, then asked what occupied the first and second position on my list. Submitted for his, and your, approval are my top five reasons why I think people commit various forms of data piracy.

Convenience/Poor Impulse Control/Entitlement

The Oatmeal posted a great cartoon a while ago about the various machinations involved in trying to own the first season of Game of Thrones. After months of waiting, paying for additional services, and waiting some more, the character in question downloaded the entire first series in eight minutes.

Piracy is the ultimate answer to wanting something now. Said demand is often rationalized, if not legitimized, through a sense of entitlement. Case in point: a person who pays for HBO can twist that subscription into a right to download episodes of HBO’s programming. DVD profits be damned. If we apply that logic to my situation, I know I own a paper copy of The White Mountains; why should I have to pay for it twice?

Impudence

Every time a judge, either in Canada or the US, renders an opinion in defence of IP addresses as something that can’t be bound to an individual person, I fear a move toward more invasive internet monitoring. Others see those verdicts as a licence to torrent to their heart’s content. Even though the first round of Napster lawsuits are old enough that they would be starting high school next year, impudence in the face of potential reprisals, well founded or otherwise, is still a dominant sentiment among pirates in their various forms. That discussion is made all the more interesting when conversations on data cryptography come into question. If downloaders are always three steps ahead of regulators, thanks to open source crypto projects, why should they fear the consequences of their infractions?

Consumer Outrage

I think this point speaks for itself. The book publishing industry might have been smart in adapting to e-readers early on in the game, but it still operates under some painfully outdated models. Given the ongoing expense that goes into producing books versus the one time investment that is an e-book, there’s no justification for the latter costing more than the former. Tell me the money is going directly to the writer’s royalties, and I might change my tune.

This concept holds true in software and music, as well. If the consumer thinks they’re getting the screw job, piracy becomes an act of righteous rebellion. Said screw jobs include geo-locking prices and availability despite the fact that globalism and multinational companies invalidate many arguments on economic protectionism. Nor should we forget product pricing that assumes Reagan is in office and subsequently increases the price on products for Canadian consumers, just because. Yes, yes, economies of scale factor into that equation. Try telling that to somebody who is in the throes of level four rage mode upon learning that Americans pay 30% less on something because of an economy of scale.

The Delusional Beta Tester

““I’m not a pirate” says the delusional beta tester. “I just don’t believe in buying something before I’ve had a chance to test it.”

Right. Except that the delusional beta tester never quite seems to get around to actually buying the product that they have been using.

The Copyright Vigilante

I don’t know that I buy into this idea, but I’ve seen it cropping up on message boards with a little too much frequency to ignore it.

The argument goes that the powers which legislate copyright have taken protecting intellectual property too far. How far is too far? To the point that eternal copyright is stymieing innovation. In so much as every innovation is an improvement on an existing product, the market for making things better is subject to armies of lawyers who claim intellectual property at every turn. While I can see a relationship between this trend and a growing entrenchment of the ultra-rich, I don’t quite see how downloading Game of Thrones tracks as a feasible act of resistance. I suppose it’s just a damn the man philosophy.

There’s my top five. Why do you think people take to piracy?


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0

Short Story Review: Air, Water, and Road

By
Adam Shaftoe
– August 19, 2011Posted in: Lit Reviews

Summary Judgement:  A subtle and challenging story that weaves together chthonic mythology, dystopian city spaces, and piracy.

Story by: Aynjel Kaye

Originally Published in: Strange Horizons Magazine, February 24, 2003

Air, Water, and Road was not what I was expecting.  Hell it wasn’t even what I wanted to review this week.  In celebration of the Space Pirates and Zombies launch, I wanted to dedicate this week’s Fiction Friday to a space pirate story.  After hours of googling I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t anime fan fiction (so much Captain Harlock fan-fiction) or pure unadulterated crap.  When I came across Air, Water, and Road and saw “They’re bus pirates. You don’t mess with bus pirates” in the caption, I knew I had found a winner.

Although the plot is straight forward, the way in which it unfolds and the mythology that it builds is nuanced and layered.  Air, Wind, and Road tells the story of a young woman named Asia.  One day Asia and her friend Jaz are walking to their mutual friend Dave’s house, when a pirate bus – that is to say an open air bus made to look like a sail boat – passes them on the street.  Jaz wants to get away from the bus.  A primal and inexplicable attraction draws Asia toward the vehicle.  When the bus stops in front of her, Asia allows herself to be brought on board.  Despite a living figurehead bound to the front of the bus like the stuff of a fetishist’s wet dream and the unsavoury state of the crew, Asia refuses to leave.  Therein, the bus’ captain begins grooming Asia for a command of her own.

To the author’s credit, Air, Water, and Road makes fantastic use of the first person-present tense narrative.  In fact, the agency conveyed through that style of writing nicely juxtaposes the themes of submission and dominance that run rampant through the story.  The rigging on the sail of the pirate bus is described as being dipped in latex.  People within the pirate’s home port are clad in “…in silks and leather, latex and lace, feathers and fur…” And did I mention the bound and gagged living pirate bus figureheads?  I did?  Ah, well then.  The message, I think, is pretty clear; piracy within this story isn’t just sexy, it’s about control.  The nature of that control, however, is a bit more nebulous.

In its strictest sense, piracy is about taking wealth while rejecting the laws of civilized nations.  Though subtle, the piracy within this story has more of a Mad Max feeling; the roaming gangs of bus pirates read like a response to urban/national decay rather than a desire to make a fortune off the backs of honest mercantilism.  Yet the piracy itself is nothing so simple as controlling through bullying.  Connected to the chthonic mythos that is woven into the story is a distinct tone of submission.  When Asia takes up the mantle of piracy she is submitting herself to something greater, a history that goes beyond the limited borders of her world.  It’s nothing short of fantastic to see a paradigm shift within the piracy narrative accompanying the creation of a mythology.

Though the story is thought provoking, it is a potentially challenging piece to read.  There is a subtle quality about the writing that took full advantage of this reader’s preconceptions.  Where I expected metaphors, the story was being literal and that caused me to miss the crux of Asia’s voyage until it was hanging plain in my face.  It’s quite the clever trick, actually.  However, it is one that led me to read the story again to be sure I had a handle on things. Smart readers will heed the bus captain’s advice and, “…just let her talk to you.”

At first, I was inclined to think of this story as a coming of age piece.  When the main character is drawn into a world that bombards her with dangerous and risqué sexuality, it seemed a logical connection to make. But upon further consideration I think that is an oversimplification of something that is much more complex.  The story provides enough hints to make a clear case for Asia as a fairly self-realized person before she gets on to the bus.  While the experience on the bus is transformative, I don’t think it necessarily “grows her up”.  Again, the theme that permeates this story is one of control.  At the end of the story, Asia is in control of a pirate bus but is also enthralled to something greater.  Who is dominant between Asia and that force is certainly grounds for debate.

I only took issue with one thing in this story.  Within its first few paragraphs the prose feels jarring.  I’m certain the choice of words and lack of indefinite articles is done intentionally so that the text, in its structure, reflects the nature of the pirate bus.  In fairness, I doubt this nod to stylistic writing will scare anybody off, but it did stand out in both of my readings.

Through it seems that Aynjel Kaye has dropped off the writing scene, Air, Water, and Road remains an excellent piece of story telling.

Overall Score: +3.5

You can read Air, Water, and Road at Strange Horizons Magazine.


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