POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

'When a powerful perpetrator attacks a weak target, many people feel this is unjust.Their outrage can be reduced when they believe fairness is being ensured by bodies; such as ombudsmen, courts or expert panels.'

 (Moore, M.B. et al., 2010)

Due to the flow of media and information, it is now easy for everyone who has access to the Internet to contribute with files. “I find it positive for the industry (academics) with file sharing”, Professor Wallis says. He believes it promotes knowledge all over the World. (Klose,2013, 0:20:13 – 0:23:17).

In 2009 The Pirate Bay (TPB) was held to court for breaking the copyright law. The site was the World’s biggest P2P file sharing system (Schoeder, 2009). What the government missed out: Everyone was guilty.

Warner Brothers, Columbia, 20th Century Fox and MGM were the main prosecutors in the trial. As their economy is sweating, the companies are desperate for someone to blame. The US government even threatened Sweden with trade sanctions, if TPB was not shut down (TPB AFK, 0:02:00 – 0:02:03)!!

The Pirate Bay logo

According to Peter Sunde; 'the problem is that old people are running the companies. They know how to make money before and they do not want to change'. Maybe he is right. As many other media related businesses, you need to compete with every citizen and think creatively, in order to win back market. Journalist Dan Gillmor points out: 'When anyone can be journalists, many talented people will try – and the’ll find things the professional miss' (2006, 25).

Are these 'old people' in denial? Well, I can see the problem with the income, but this is how globalisation has made it possible for everyone to contribute. We need to accept it – it has gotten out of anyone’s control.

Peter Sunde among many others came up with an idea: donation! Either way, your work will be copied – and this I believe covers almost every genre, so why not ask for credit, instead of forcing it and get none? The term crowdfunding covers it.

The future?

Bib:

Martin, B, Moore, C and Salter, C. 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, vol. 15, no. 12

Klose, S, 2013, TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard, Doc, Sweden, Nonami

Gillmor, D 2006, We The Media: Rise of Citizen Journalism, Dan Gillmor on grassroots journalism by the people, for the people, O'Reilly Media


Schoeder, S. 2009, 'TPB Trial: Guilty as charged', Mashable, NY