Micah M. White has a new blog up on AdBusters; “Support Online Piracy”

He says:

“There is no swifter way to bring about the de-commercialization of art than to undercut the profit motive. Likewise, there is no better way to promote a blackspot culture than to actively copy and distribute the cultural productions that speak to us and the future we’d like to build. If we pirate everything, how will the artists get paid? That is precisely the point: piracy opens up the possibility of imagining new ways of being and new ways of supporting the potential of art to change the world.”

To the extent that I am correctly (or incorrectly) interpreting White’s comments,  I agree that de-commercialization is necessary as a means to reinvigorate our public spaces and our public discourse. I see the current media and commerce market as a zero sum game where every dollar, inch, and minute gobbled up by private interests means a commensurate loss of the public’s interest.  I agree that the artists will create art regardless of any profit motive. The overwhelming majority of art and culture that has been created by humans has been done so for little or no money. I agree that by draining the entire economic system as it currently exists will exert downward economic pressure on everyone, including artists. They are, however, able to keep producing premium, insightful, highly valued artifacts no matter what’s going on in the economy.

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