My attention was caught by an article in the Financial Times this morning about the experimental French rock band Chevreuil.

Yes, this is an unexpected sentence. The reason for the FT's interest is that the musicians have released their latest compositions online for others to download and use as they wish. The project is called The Pirate Organisation. The funding comes from royalties on a book of the same title by Rodolphe Durand and Jean-Philippe Vergne, two business profs (currently only in French, English translation on its way). It tells “the story of capitalism from the perspective of pirates.” Sounds terrific.

The article has an intriguing description of their work looking at the public interest and the relationship between private and public interest – and, in the case of Prof Vergne's PhD thesis, 18th century pirates.

I've long been trying to understand the implications of the way online technologies blur the distinction between private and public. James Boyle's The Public Domain is still the best thing I've read on these issues. But of course there are many other works on piracy both literal and metaphorical, including Peter Leeson's The Invisible Hook (about the economics of actual high seas piracy). Other recommendations?

PS First recommendation, from Max Nathan, is The Pirate's Dilemma by Matt Mason.