The Pirate's Dilemma: How Hackers, Punk Capitalists, Graffiti Millionaires and Other Youth Movements are Remixing Our Culture and Changing Our World

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Penguin Adult, 2008 - Business & Economics - 276 pages

What s the connection between the nun who invented disco, and the effect of file sharing? How does hip-hop manage to be an underground movement and a multi-billion dollar business - at the same time? And how are pirates, of the kind who started commercial radio in the twentieth century, changing society in the 21st?

The Pirate s Dilemma tells the stories of youth culture uncovering, for the first time, what it is that transforms underground scenes into global industries. Matt Mason, successful entrepreneur, argues that that from youth `culture, out on the edges of the mainstream, come the ideas that ultimately change the mainstream itself whether it s graffiti, piracy, hacking, open source culture or remixing. In the course of doing so he unravels some of our most basic assumptions about business and society and pinpoints trends to look out for in our future.

Because right now, everyone, from the ceo of a mainstream company to a teenager wanting to start the next youth culture revolution, is struggling with a new dilemma: that we can all companies and individuals alike be pirates now. And as piracy increasingly changes the way we find, use and sell information, how should we respond? Do we fight pirates, or do we learn from them? Should piracy be treated as a problem, or a whole new solution?

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About the author (2008)

Matt Mason began his a career as a pirate radio and club DJ in London, going on to become Editor-in-Chief of the seminal magazine RWD. In 2004, he was selected as one of the faces of Gordon Brown's Start Talking Ideas campaign, and was presented the Prince's Trust London Business of the Year Award by HRH Prince Charles. He has written and produced TV series', comic strips, and records and his journalism has appeared in VICE,Complexand other publications in more than 12 countries around the world. He recently founded the non-profit media company Wedia with his wife Emily. He lives in New York City and is the author of The Pirate's Dilemma(Penguin, 2008).

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