

Steal This Idea - Interview with Matt Mason - dangoldin
http://www.fastcompany.com/node/804055/print

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dangoldin
I just finished reading his book "The Pirate's Dillema" and highly recommend
it.

He talks about innovation through piracy and how more and more industries are
being opened up through piracy - music, software, etc and how at one point the
piracy becomes main stream enough that the corporations need to compete at the
pirate level.

Definitely a recommended read: [http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Dilemma-Culture-
Reinventing-Ca...](http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Dilemma-Culture-Reinventing-
Capitalism/dp/1416532188)

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edw519
What's next? Murder your competitor to get ahead? Kidnap his children so he
takes his eye off the ball? Put date rape drug in the water cooler on
interview day so you'll be the only one awake?

No matter how widespread or "acceptable" unethical behavior becomes, it's
still unethical. And wrong. And maybe even illegal.

Allowing any of your business processes to be based upon that which is wrong
relegates all of your trustability to the garbage. Or:

    
    
      everything you do * ethics (0 or 1) = your trustability
    

I've seen this over and over. As soon as someone shows that they are willing
to compromise their ethics, everything changes. You will never know where they
will "draw the line" the next time.

Exactly when was it that ethics became so less important in business?

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dangoldin
I agree with you but I think you're taking it a bit extreme. He's not
condoning stealing but just points out the various cases why it has happened,
where it has happened, and how the industries have adapted.

There would be no pirated music if no one were downloading pirated songs and
there wouldn't be people selling fake Rolexes for $10 if there was no demand
so the demand drives the supply in a way. It's always up to the end user to
see whether they want to buy something or not.

He claims that it's counterproductive for the various industries that are
being pirated to go against the general trend of humanity by enforcing laws
but they should rather adapt the model.

Also, if there was a correct way to enforce copyrights every country would be
doing it but since every country does it differently, how do we know what's
correct?

