Guilty guilty guilty — a project description
There are hardly any sensible debates going on between those who don't obey copyright laws and those who'd like to see those laws enforced. I see no reason to change that, so in that vein I did this project.
The references used in debating copyright- and patent-law often cause a knee-jerk reaction; either you're a law-abiding consumer or a bloody terrorist-helping communist; either you're a stiff fascist who wants to sell everything including your own children were it only legal, or you're a drifty entrepreneur.
I guess I fall into the camp who'd like to govern myself, thank you very much, and really don't take easily to rules and regulations. I'd like to think that I'm sane enough and moral enough to make my own decisions concerning these things.
Having said that, I download shit like crazy; I do occasionally pay for shareware, don't make any money of what I download, and yes I do still buy music and movies (albeit only online — I have enough clutter as it is and don't want to add another jewel-case to it).
I love to help other people finding information or giving them new ideas or angles on things; if there was a cartoon hero that was working in a very big library and go out of his way to give books away, in my dreams I would be him and call myself THE FACILITATOR.
Technically speaking I live in relative poverty: I study full time, don't have any study grants left and try to juggle my studies with a part-time job and freelancing as a photographer. I'm not complaining: I don't need a high standard of living, I don't have many expenses and prefer to be poor and lack stuff, as opposed to work more and afford stuff.
Which brings me to the actual project description: I thought I'd tap into one of the most widely used references when it comes to our modern society; George Orwell's book 1984.
I've chosen to paraphrase the scene in the movie adaptation of the book where Winston Smith (played by John Hurt) after torture and brainwashing does a public confession of crimes against the state, real and imagined.
Even though I don't see the RIAA or their ilk torturing pirates weeks on end in order to reform them,1 the idea is not too farfetched to make it unrealistic.
Basically I have tried to retain the look and feel of the video, while changing the confession into something concerning intellectual property.2
The main concept behind this project is that when a great number of people are challenging the law, the law has to change. And if what is being questioned can be framed within a greater critique of the society,3 then the ideas of that society have to change.
I believe that most people who do worthwhile works of art or music or anything creative, are not doing it solely out of economic necessity; their actions are a compromise between economic necessity and what they really want to do. The only reason why corporations and governments are pretending to speak on their behalf is because the corporations and the governments want to stay in control of the discussion — everyone wants to be in control over what words we are using, and what they mean.
In short, the only reasonable way forward for any realistic persons is one where there is a democratisation of capital and a decentralisation of political power; one of the results of which could (and should) be a different way of looking at culture. Hopefully the causality works both ways, and that by changing our approach to culture we can change the reality which culture is mirroring.
Sincere regards : Mateusz Pozar : www.monocultured.com
1 I guess you could argue that they're trying to do this by proxy through the prosecution of pirates, causing huge strain on the individuals accused. In a society where capital is both the whip and the reward, the depravation of it (or threat thereof) is extremely taxing.
2 A very challenging term in itself.
3 The more general critique of society could in this case be the widely held notion that money equals worth, and by extension who is worth how much.