Matt Mason (2)

The Pirate's Dilemma is the up-in-the-air question of how to deal with society's trend toward free media and disregard for traditional intellectual property. What emerges is "punk capitalism," an alternative for artists to put products directly in fans' hands, rejecting the traditional modes of advertisement and distribution and thereby restructuring the economics of mass media.

While the main 'art form' discussed was music, primarily hip-hop, Mason's text also spans graffiti, publishing, video, software, and flash mobs, among others. Some of these examples went astray of having a really tight thesis detailing punk capitalism, as several of them just seemed like good innovation rather than a badass political statement (for example, Steve Jobs's open source development of computer programs was not especially sticking it to the man). And sometimes the book failed to differentiate between progressive and destructive methods of "pushing the boundaries." So the actual execution turned out to be less impressive than the premise, but there's a ton of good anecdotes and detailing of the shifts in youth culture nonetheless.… (más)