In Patrick Burkart's Pirate Politics, he focuses on the policies that surround areas like file sharing, surveillance, software, web publishing, and gaming. Copyright and technological protection that stems from property right laws often restrict users from accessing digital information and content. The factor of anonymity that the internet fosters brings about the issue that it makes it more difficult to find and combat digital criminality. He explains that "leaving aside the implications for civil liberties and an open society, failed information policy in an information society can damage the structures and processes of communication and even stifle economic growth" (109). However, the sharing and creation of content is one of the major ways that the economy can be sustained. Furthermore, proposal 138 suggests that internet access is a basic human right and disconnection by the state would be unlawful. Copyright infringement laws stifle innovation and harm competition such that much of the content we see are from similar sources. Moreover, there is a challenge for piracy reformers to emphasize the intrinsic benefits that information as a shared resource brings rather than information being viewed as a commodity.
The internet now has so many websites and software made available to users so they can obtain music, games, television shows, and other content for free. What are your thoughts on the belief pirates have that the information society should be free and democratic? Is this sustainable or more beneficial than the enforcement of copyright laws?
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