Pirates are all over the news. On the one hand, Obama is facing off against pirates, not far off the coast of his father's homeland. See this somewhat silly article in Mother Jones. On the other hand, the Swedes have convicted the leaders of The Pirate Bay (a torrenting website that I have confessed to using on occasion) of copyright infringement, unexpectedly granting a huge boost to a Swedish Piratpartiet (really!), propelling them past even the Greens, at least temporarily, in the polls. And meanwhile, Lars Ulrich (of the rock band Metallica, notorious for having essentially sued his own fans for piracy in the past) has now announced that he's siding with Trent Reznor and Radiohead and believes major record labels are no longer necessary.
So… which pirates are the real pirates? What does all this mean? What ties them together? I would speculate, for both best and worst, that there's a sort of libertarian ideal that provides the linkages. It was the example of Somalia that has caused me, in recent years, to reconsider my own libertarianism. And it is movements like Sweden's Piratpartiet that make me think libertarianism still has something to offer, ideologically. I'm offering no answers… just meditating on things.
I believe that Lars was essentially backed into a corner. Somehow, he didn’t understand that siding with “The Man”, no matter what the issue, isn’t something that heavy metal fans are too enamored with. That said, showing any sort of kinship with the RIAA was really just a bad business move and his recent comments regarding the necessity of record labels are probably nothing more than a feeble attempt to reestablish civil relations with the band’s fanbase. Just a thought…