The three habits of highly effective pirates

Matt Mason's keynote on The Pirate's Dilemma. Good video that gives context to former News Corp COO Peter Chermin's comment that piracy is a business and not a legal problem.

Two takeaways:

The three habits of highly effective pirates

- Pirates look for gaps outside the market
- Create a vehicle/medium that is sending a message to people
- Harness the power of the audience and get a society behind them (get a debate going on what's right and wrong)

The combination of The Pirate Bay, Piratbyrån and Piratpartiet is probably the example of highly effective pirates.

Business responses to piracy

- Fight when pirates are not adding value (pirate goods hurt consumers, like poisonous food, toothpaste, toys etc)
- Compete with when pirates are adding value (piracy is a signal of market demand) or when obscurity is a threat ("Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.")