The pirate's dilemma
by Matt Mason · first published 2008
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Argues that piracy and youth-driven remix culture can drive business innovation, using historical examples. Readers say it shows how copying shapes markets and recommend it to anyone interested in culture and capitalism.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Music journalist Mason, a former pirate radio and club DJ in London, explores how open source culture is changing the distribution and control of information and harnessing the old system of punk capitalism to new market conditions governing society. According to Mason, this movement's creators operate according to piratical tactics and are changing the very nature of our economy. He charts the rise of the ideas and social experiments behind these latter-day pirates, citing the work of academics, historians and innovators across a multitude of fields. He also explores contributions by visionar
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2009–2020What every BODY is saying
Joe Navarro, Marvin Karlins
Recommended by 20 · mentioned by 2520 recommend · 25 mention20 recommend · 2520 recommend
2007–2026The Innovator's Dilemma
Clayton M. Christensen, L J Ganser, Don Leslie
Recommended by 148 · mentioned by 340148 recommend · 340 mention148 recommend · 340148 recommend
…override the CSS like I did with my browser. If you like reading about this subject you should also try two earlier books "Darknet: Hollywood's War Against the Digital Generation" by J D Lasica and "The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism" by Matt Mason. Both cover similar subject matter in depth.
on “The Pirate Book” ↗Every time this topic comes up I'm reminded of The Pirate's Dilemma [0], which is a great read that I recommend. The way the author presents the problem, using history as a reference, is that when "pirates" come to play and achieve acceptance by the masses (basically…
on “Popcorn Time And Tech's Duty To Do The Right Thing” ↗If you haven't read it, I would recommend Matt Mason's "The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism" (goodread link:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2286633.The_Pirate_s_Dil...), which is arguably still very relevant.
on “We All Work for Facebook” ↗…creativity is very high. You could argue that a high fashion brand "loses money" when a low price retailer, like H&M or Zara, produces more or less the same design, but very few do. I recommend reading "The Pirate's Dilemma" which is available from $0.00 upwards at http://thepiratesdilemma.com/download-the-book Edit: The difference between the high fashion brand and the low price retailer clothes are quality, perceived…
on “Obama Supports $675,000 File Sharing Verdict” ↗…me in his list. Though I will say that this list is missing a few good books: 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing 48 Laws of Power Antifragile The Fish That Ate the Whale Wikinomics Contagious The Pirate's Dilemma and I think PG's book of essays is worth reading for any founder as well
on “A Startup Reading List” ↗Love. Read "Pirate's Dilemma." Pirates are good for capitalism, good for society, good for the world. Anyone who stands in their way must die.
on “Ask YC: Do you love or hate software piracy?” ↗A good book on piracy from a cultural and business perspective is The Pirate's Dilemma. It used to be "pay what you want" but the payment system seems broken. http://thepiratesdilemma.com/about-the-book
on “What one book could give me a new, useful superpower?” ↗