Interactivist Info Exchange | “Pirate Autonomies”

Autonomous communications systems require three functional elements: the means of production, transmission facilities and informational raw materials. The spread of the commodity PC has taken care of the first. The second has been confronted through innovative digital techniques — peer to peer [p2p] networks to pool bandwidth and streaming technologies — and through the illegal occupation of the airwaves by pirate radios and more recently street televisions [Telestreet], and in some countries through public cable access and even independent satellite broadcasting initiatives [DeepDish TV, NoWarTV, Global Radio].

The last element has proven the most challenging as access to the audio-visual lexicon that can engage a wider public is constrained by a system of property rights — copyrights and trademarks — that denies the possibility of recycling the works of others — whether to convey our argument or contest that of another.