Abstract
Rodrigo Saturnino analyses the emergence and ideology of the Pirate Party of Sweden, whose trajectory reflects the ambiguous nature of the Internet. The main aim of this party, which arose in response to technical and legal attacks on the free sharing of information, was to question the legitimacy of the private sector’s drive to monopolize information and thereby restrict civic autonomy.
Its success to date lies in the adoption of a holistic strategy which caters to the needs of different cultural contexts, in line with the basic principles which rely on the technological imaginary. Like Musso with the disciples of Saint-Simon, Saturnino identifies in the Pirate Party’s trajectory a utopian inclination based on the reticular imaginary. But the pirates know that to achieve their reticular democratic imaginary they need to institutionalize the struggle and the resistance, by reiterating the libertarian and techno-utopian nature of the network as a democratic instrument. For the pirates, the rhyzomatic nature of the network, which makes control and surveillance possible and provides the means for a new capitalism, also provides the guidelines for a new path of resistance.
Saturnino’s contribution is also notable for the way he identifies which forms of network allow for polysemantic interpretations and shows how the uses of the Internet depend above all on their technical structure, even if they have their origins in the reticular ideology and imaginary. The fact that information circulating on the Internet has successfully been placed in the service of the market is a prime example of the polysemantics of technical networks and more specifically of the Internet. A second example of this ambiguity is to be found in the paradoxical relationship between the privatization of information and privacy, inasmuch as the logic of the privatization of knowledge has taken place alongside the adoption of policies which disregard users’ privacy. The third example lies in the objectification of contradictory advantages: while on the one hand it encourages the circulation of information, on the other hand it lends itself to control and the institutionalizing of surveillance.
In this sense, because competition for power and the colliding interests of markets and citizens attach to the idea of information and because, in the Pirate Party’s philosophy, information is a common good, not only “are we all connected”, but “we are all pirates” also.
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Notes
- 1.
JSTOR, a digital library founded in 1995, sells much of the material that keeps stored in its servers. The JSTOR file downloading case began in the autumn of 2010, through a guest-user’s account. The unusual data traffic between MIT's and JSTOR's servers drew the attention of both institutions, due to alleged system overload. A first attempt was made to block access, but the account was subsequently restored. Massachusetts State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were then called in to investigate the situation, and in January 2011 Aaron Swartz was arrested at the MIT's campus (Sims 2011; Macfarquhar 2013).
- 2.
Noteworthy are not only the examples of Edward Snowden's and Julian Assange's ‘Wikileaks’ revelations, but also the actions of Anonymous and the recent activism of groups such as Open Access Movement, Free Software, and others.
- 3.
In the text, the label “Pirate Party” was used to identify all political parties (official or non-formalized) in different countries which share common causes, such as freedom of information and knowledge sharing, the reformulation of copyright and patent laws, the right to privacy, public transparency and direct democracy, amongst others.
- 4.
TRIPS – Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights; ACTA – Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement; SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act; PIPA – PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act).
- 5.
Direct Connect is a file-sharing and chat-channels network.
- 6.
A Tracker (BitTorrent tracker) is a server that assists in the communication between two computers using the peer-to-peer network protocol. A tracker can operate as an Indexer, i.e. the one that also offers a list of files to share. None of them allows direct downloading. The same is true of cyberlockers, which only establish contact between peers.
- 7.
A comparative table, prepared by Andrew Reitemeyer in an exploratory way, points to the similarities and differences of the policy proposals of the different Pirate Parties. A quick analysis of that document shows that the elementary principles mentioned above remain in evidence in most of the parties listed therein. http://www.cleopolis.com/PP_comparison_policies.html. Accessed 14 Apr 2013.
- 8.
In 2015, the common policy of the Pirate parties included the following points: (1) Defend free speech, communication, education; respect the privacy of citizens and civil rights in general; (2) Defend the free flow of ideas, knowledge and culture; (3) Support politically the reform of copyright and patent laws; (4) Have a commitment to work collaboratively, and participate with maximum transparency; (5) Not to accept or espouse discrimination on grounds of race, origin, beliefs or gender; (6) Not to support actions that involve violence; (7) Use free software, free hardware, DIY and open protocols whenever possible; (8) Politically defend an open, participative and collaborative construction of any public policy; (9) Direct democracy; (10) Open access; (11) Open data; (12) Solidarity economy, Economy for the Common Good and promote solidarity with other pirates; (13) Share whenever possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party. Accessed 10 Jan 2015.
- 9.
The term "pirate" is used by Pirate Parties to identify their respective members. Despite the semantic ambiguities and the derogatory aspect of the word in contemporary culture, the use made by the Pirate Party members is markedly an affirmative action of the institutional type, in order to mark a place of existence in the field of party politics. http://www.visir.is/the-pirate-party-is-now-measured-as-the-biggest-party-in-iceland/article/2015150318848. Accessed 19 Mar 2015.
- 10.
Through a report by UN's Human Rights Council and the website Mashable, the United Nations (UN) defended the access to the computer network as a fundamental human right for the social development of individuals, and recommended the signatory countries to review copyright laws in order to promote a balanced access and without loss to societies. www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan 2014.
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Saturnino, R. (2016). The Rise of Pirates: Political Identities and Technological Subjectivities in a Network Society. In: Garcia, J. (eds) Pierre Musso and the Network Society. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45538-9_8
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