Piracy As A Means For Production

The title of my blog has become a bit strange to me. in the beginning I was particularly interested in musicians such as Girl Talk or Super Mash Bros. As much as I love the music the blog moved elsewhere, focusing on the public policy issue surrounding piracy and became specifically geared towards people who pirate movies, music, software, etc.

And so I began to ask myself, "where's the 'production' in all of this?" Just because there are people out there downloading media this doesn't mean they are necessarily making anything with the pirated material...but It also doesn't mean that they aren't. How does piracy "take" and "remake" something? The artists exampled from the book on appropriation were producing things. This blog is an example of piracy as a means for production. Some of the images/videos on this blog weren't necessarily obtained legally. However, I reserve artistic freedom and interpretation. I'm doing this to further understand the issue.


But what about all those, like me before this class, who just simply pirate? Are they creating anything new? Is it out of laziness that they download illegal material? Is it some kind of revolutionary act against the economic structures of media business? I ask myself these questions because over the course of the semester I've come to the conclusion that neither side is correct.


Ulmer had some great advice about the clichés in my public policy topic. Both sides claim that the "art" cannot exist as long as the other continues to exist (there can be no music/movies if people continue to pirate; there can be no art if companies continue to copyright everything). Both statements are extreme and, in my opinion, aren't necessarily valid.

In the end I think it really comes down to purpose/intent...and here is where my stance gets a little complicated. Do we allow piracy only if it is with the intent to produce something? Doesn't this place more value on a product-based way of thinking? If a person downloads an album, shares it with their friend, who shares it with another friend (and so on) - are they not producing something? I always seem to get wishy washy when it comes to controversial issues. I'm not entirely sure that this one will get completely resolved for me - I don't think that I'll ever stop pirating music/movies/software, but then again that doesn't mean that I won't support those "products" that I admire or enjoy. For now I'll live by the philosophy that was once told to me by a professor:

"I'll buy it [software] once I start making money from using it."