[-empyre-] Piracy at the heart of governing? - "Piracy as Business Force"

[Michel Bauwens]

ok, I have some time, as my dublin participation has been cancelled,

one remark about appropriation ...

a naive question, is appropriation/adaptation always bad, even "if" it is
appropriated by capitalism?

I want to take an example, in the sixties and seventies, many of the new
generations started craving for more integrative and wholistic educational
and medical practices, part of the revolt against mechanistic medicine and
authoritarian education ...

30 years later, these choices are now much more widely available, think for
example about the integration of wholistic medicine in Germany ... the
situation is certainly not ideal, the services are used more by the educated
elite etc... but broadly, they are available; its practitioners have both
'adapted' to the requirements of society, while maintaining a substantial
degree of autonomy in their social practices, which sometimes, as recently
in the UK fighting against state mainstreaming of alternative psychological
practice, requires active defense, ('m not ignoring as serious setbacks such
as the ongoing destruction of public education and the NHS in the UK)

but on the whole, the situation is 'better', in several respects,  than it
used to be. What I think of interest here is that whatever our complaints
and gripes are against the prevailing system, we should not be blinded by
the 'enemy', but rather have creatively our own interests at heart, i.e. how
can we maintain maximum autonomy and advance 'our causes and practices' even
in a hostile environment.

The adaptations that totally enslave us, should be rejected, but adaptations
that strengthen us, in minor or major ways, might be beneficial to 'us',
even as it also means an integration in the prevailing order of things.

This general statement out of the way, I think that we have new historical
opportunities to create alternative social practices that can substantially
outcooperate existing models, on substantially new terms and based on the
'hyperproductivity' of social cooperation and peer production, and that we
can use this not just for creating more autonomous practices within the
prevailing system, but actually as premises for overcoming that system.

Nothing in this is 'automatic' or gained in advance, BUT, the possibilities
are sufficiently realistic to rethink our tactics and strategies,

What I generally object to, but I'm not saying it is happening here, are
views and perspectives which describe a system out of which there is no
escape; while we have to be realistic about the strength of the system and
the 'enemies' of autonomy, neither should we denigrate our own agency and
potential,

Michel

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 3:24 PM, Simon Biggs <s.biggs at eca.ac.uk> wrote:

> Excellent overview Jussi.
>
> You are right, piracy has been a characteristic of UK economic activity for
> centuries. At the time when the Spanish were the dominant global economic
> power the English relied as much upon its pirates and privateers as its
> navy
> to steal away Spanish wealth and power. Ultimately England replaced Spain
> as
> the dominant power. Those pirate tendencies still seem to echo through the
> UK and, to some extent, the global economy.
>
> The viral marketing business model you describe (Dubitinsider) is
> fascinating and insidious. Perhaps I am an old moralist but this is exactly
> the sort of new economic activity that, in my view, is ruining the net. But
> I'm not surprised that it exists. There will always be those who seek to
> profit from the weaknesses in human nature (there I am being all moral
> again).
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> On 11/07/2011 08:20, "Parikka J." <J.Parikka at soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > And thanks for the intro as well as to the discussions by everyone
> already. It
> > has been a joy reading, and now thinking where to continue; I think
> > ³appropriation² is one such theme, ³bad/evil² is another one.
> > Some of the most recent comments by for instance Simon referred already
> to the
> > capturing of such processes, or to quote him: ³The appropriation of
> radical
> > practices by the mainstream². This indeed is one key way to tap into
> > understanding how the tensions between creativity and value
> appropriation,
> > deviant practices and mainstream, capitalism and its outsides are
> working.
> > Such themes were flagged by Hardt and Negri, and elaborated in several
> > discussions questioning what is left of creativity ­ and the generic
> > potentialities of the human for instance ­ after it has become a target
> of
> > governmental policies (UK since 1990s) and neoliberalist discourses (the
> > precarious, insecure, mobile creative work force at the core of
> post-fordist
> > labour).
> >
> > What is interesting to note is that this mode of appropriation of
> creative
> > energies is not only happening in the sense of a parasitical capitalism ­
> or
> > viral capitalism, as I have called in some contexts, like in Digital
> > Contagions ­ but that capitalism, itself, already, is rotten, anomalous
> and
> > deviant itself. And by this, I do not mean solely an ethical judgment,
> but
> > something that relates to how those anomalous objects of digital culture
> such
> > as piracy, spam, etc. are at the core of how business works ­ mainstream
> too.
> > Something we have been writing recently with Tony Sampson relates to
> this.
> > Admittedly more about spam incorporated to social relations, but relates
> to a
> > mode of affection inside social relations alreadyS
> >
> > We focused on a specific case in the UK around a marketing campaign by a
> > company Dubitinsider. The idea is simple: to recruit 13-24 year olds who
> > consider themselves to be ³peer leader[s] with strong communication
> skills² to
> > act as ³Brand Ambassadors². What they need to do is a clandestine passing
> on
> > of online and offline product suggestions to their peers via fly posting,
> > posting on message boards and social networks, emails, instant messenger
> > conversations, organising small events and hosting small parties.
> Teenagers
> > themselves became then spam relays, so to speak, who through affective
> social
> > relations were acting as embodied messages.
> >
> > Strategies based on tapping into the spreading of social influence are
> not
> > particularly new. A reliance on seeking out influential individuals
> > (Influentials) has been the mainstay of word-of-mouth strategies and
> persists
> > in so-called ³word-of-mouse² variations on this theme. For example,
> another
> > marketing firm, in4merz.com, tries to draw upon the anticipated
> infectious
> > relations established between friends ³on and offline² in order to
> promote
> > music acts. As the company¹s website claims, ³In4merz is about matching
> our
> > artists to your friends who may like them² (in4merz website). Young
> In4merz
> > create posters, banners and videos about acts, Twitter about them, leave
> > comments on Facebook or other social sites. For each level of promotion,
> > In4merz earn points that are convertible into concert tickets, CDs, DVDs
> and
> > the occasional chance to meet their favourite act.
> >
> > These are good examples of such distribution logic that characterises not
> only
> > those practices, or objects, that are the target of normalisation ­
> focusing
> > on weeding out piracy, or spam ­ but rides the same logic, a logic of
> > distribution of spam and viruses.
> >
> > More importantly perhaps, when these strategies become disconnected from
> the
> > anomalous contexts of ³bad² software and become attached to the
> legitimate
> > remits of the business enterprise, they become part of a broader change,
> or at
> > least a perception of change, concerning the way imitative social
> relations,
> > contagious communication networks, vulnerable bodies and unconscious
> moods can
> > be harnessed.
> >
> > This is one aspect of not only capture, but the ³bad², ³the evil² (in the
> > sense of ³evil media studies², as Fuller and Goffey write in The Spam
> Book)
> > inside the normalized ­ accepted ­ already. So how about piracy? The
> question
> > becomes, how is piracy inherent already in the imposition of certain
> modes of
> > governing through regimes of copyright, tapping into creativity, creating
> such
> > categories as piracy, and criminalisation of an increasing amount of
> practices
> > that are, more or less, what we could call still ³normal². How are we
> being
> > pirated by such regimes of control and power?
> >
> > I think the discussions have already pointed towards this piracy,
> illegality
> > at the core of some of the actions against-piracy; Paolo pointed this out
> when
> > mentioning some of the extraordinary legislative procedures to hammer
> through
> > for instance the UK Digital Economy Bill. Paolo also wrote how ³Regarding
> the
> > six strikes plan, as a euphemism, Mitigation Measures certainly sounds
> pretty
> > scary. It seems like government on behalf of big business might sabotage
> the
> > individual user with outsourced bureaucracy.² Sabotage, vandalism, denial
> of
> > service is part of the legitimized ways to grant/deny access.
> >
> > One interesting fresh way to think such links of control and power is to
> riff
> > with Adrian Johns¹ important and insightful text ³Piracy as Business
> Force²
> > (Culture Machine, vol. 10, 2009); in the text, Johns tracks a genealogy
> of
> > piracy at the core of neoliberalist thinking and objection to the state.
>  He
> > writes about the ³Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)², launched in the
> UK in
> > the 1950s as a promoter of free trade and neoliberal economics, a
> critique of
> > state structures, and later endorsed by such figures as Margaret
> Thatcher. One
> > of the things IEA supported were pirate radios, and the whole idea of
> piracy
> > as driving innovationSSome of their tracts focused on media issues
> (against
> > broadcasting and pro independent providers), and it¹s worthwhile to quote
> from
> > one of their 1960s texts, ³Piracy as Business Force², which subtly but
> > effectively endorses ³breaking the rules² as a force of innovation in
> business
> > and society:
> >
> > ³Hostility to commercial Opiracy¹ is neither new or unfamiliar: it is a
> reflex
> > action by established interests to unwelcome and adventurous competition.
> In
> > business, energetic newcomers disturb accepted patterns and precepts.
> Even the
> > most competitive industry settles sooner or later into an accepted
> > establishment in which all members play the game according to tacit
> rules. To
> > break the rules is not only professional bad form but also Oagainst the
> public
> > interest¹.  [S] In business, as in large sections of British society as a
> > whole, the energetic and inventive newcomer is commonly seen as an
> intruder,
> > an upstart, an interloper, a disturber of the peace and of ³the done
> thing².²
> >
> > What the tract continues as is a celebration of locality, of
> non-standardised
> > forms of language and culture, and such ideas that paradoxically find
> strong
> > resonance with current anti-globalisation promoters and activist. Hence,
> the
> > question that interests me is how could we already track some of the
> themes of
> > ³bad², ³evil² and ³piracy² within the modes of control/governing ­
> neoliberal
> > and governmental ­ already.
> >
> > best
> > Jussi
> > ______
> > Dr Jussi Parikka
> > Reader in Media & Design
> > Winchester School of Art
> > University of Southampton, UK
> > Http://jussiparikka.net
> >
> > Adjunct Professor of Digital Culture Theory, University of Turku
> > Visiting Fellow at Institute of Media Studies, Humboldt University,
> Berlin -
> > Spring and Summer 2011
> >
> > New books - just out:
> > Media Archaeology: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520262744
> > Insect Media: http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/P/parikka_insect.html
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
> Simon Biggs | simon at littlepig.org.uk | www.littlepig.org.uk
>
> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art
> www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.net
>
>
>
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number
> SC009201
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>



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