clipped from: www.fastcompany.com   

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The Fast Interview: Author Matt Mason on how the pirating of intellectual property can be a good thing.

We live in an age of piracy. Intellectual property can no longer be locked up in the corporate castle. Instead, it flows as freely as trade winds--and can be plundered in the form of illegal downloads or cheap knockoffs produced offshore. Businesses face a new dilemma: are pirates a threat to be battled or innovators to be emulated? Should you compete with pirates at their own game? In the book The Pirate's Dilemma, Matt Mason shows how piracy has become a new business model and argues that youth culture is pushing the world towards a more democratic model of capitalism. Mason, who is 29, tells us what we can learn from pirate radio, video game hackers, and why being pirated is a whole lot better than being ignored.