Pirates, Librarians and Open Source Capitalists: New Alliances in the ‘Say hello to your new librarian’ © Copyrighted Material On 28 June 2012 the Swedish Library Association published a full page ad in one of the country’s largest newspaper, three-piece suit is looking sternly at the reader under the heading ‘Say hello to your new librarian’. The ad declares that ‘There is a silent revolution going on in our public libraries. Not long ago, libraries were independent. Free to select, buy Chapter 8 and recommend literature and factual books from amongst all the books that were in print. Then came the e-book’. The Library Association criticises the publishers’ Copyright Wars strict control over the distribution of e-books, particularly their refusal to release new titles to the libraries and their rigid price policies. The ad states that while the e-book is a wonderful opportunity for libraries, it is both an opportunity and a threat for publishers: ‘E-books are potential cash cows – provided that the threat Martin Fredriksson of libraries’ independent choices and purchases are eliminated’. Here the libraries’ aim to freely and publicly disseminate culture and knowledge is in contrast to the commercial interests of the publishers who threaten to take control over the libraries: ‘Your new librarian likes money more than books and owns a large publishing company’ (Svensk Biblioteksförening, 2012). Library, Information and Documentation Association (EBLIDA) has been running a similar campaignThis is that not tries a unique to draw Swedish attention debate. to how Over the recent control years, that thethe publishers impose on the e-book format prevents the libraries from fulfilling their obligation to ‘guarantee© free2015 access to content, information and culture for all European From Helle Porsdam (ed.), Copyrightingcitizens’ Creativity: (EBLIDA, 2013). Creative EBLIDA Values, points toCultural how the licensingHeritage of e-booksInstitutions and Dagens Nyheter Systems of Intellectualcontrols the Propertylibraries’ acquisition, published policies, by but Ashgate also how it Publishing.violates users’ privacy by collecting and storing personal user data and limits their access to the material sinceSee: it http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472431653restricts how, where and on what devices an e-book can be consumed (EBLIDA, 2012). In an American context similar initiatives have been taken, for instance by the campaign ‘e-books for libraries’ (http://ebooksforlibraries.com). www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. , where an elderly man in a © Copyrighted Material European Bureau of 154 © CopyrightedCopyrighting Material Creativity Copyright material: You are not permitted to transmit this file in any format or media; it may not be resold or reused without prior agreement with Ashgate Publishing and may not beFigure placed 8.1 on any publicly accessible or commercial servers. www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate .com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com ‘Say hello to your Association (Svensk Biblioteksförening) new librarian’, The Swedish Library © Copyrighted Material Librarians have mounted the barricades against extensive copyright legislation several times Thein the library past. organisations’In her book Terms interest of Use in copyright Eva Hemmungs issues is Wirtén not limited points to e-books. out that few ‘institutions are as affected by the threats now waged against the public domain and the increased permission culture that proliferates in its wake as libraries’. She goes on to discuss how libraries and affiliated organisations were among the most vocal opponents against the limitations to the public domain imposed by the American Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) of 1998 (Hemmungs Wirtén, 2008: 128). In 2005 the respected British institution,Pirates, The Librarians and Open Source Capitalists UK Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA), issued ‘The Adelphi Charter on creativity, innovation and intellectual property’, which called for a limitation to the expansion of copyright law which threatens creativity and the public domain (RSA, 2005). A few years later similar initiatives were taken by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) which took a stand against the copyright implications of the Australia-United States Free Trade © Copyrighted Material Agreement (AUSFTA). The Australian copyright scholar Lynn Spender argues that the positions of RSA and ALIA represent ‘the spread of support for copyleft principles in the upper echelons of the legal, scientific and artistic establishments’ (Spender, 2009: 124). library’s basic function. As Siva Vaidyanathan points out in his book in the LibraryThis scepticism towards copyright expansionism is a consequence of the institution that enables efficient distribution of texts and information to people who can’t afford to get it commercially, the library pokes holes in the commercial information system’ (Vaidyanathan, 2004: 123). As such the library is, just like the pirate, at conflict with the content industries that constantly attempts to fill such leaks with the help of stricter copyright legislation and harsher implementation. at least articulate some of the conflicts over authorship, copyright and access to knowledge thatThis have chapter come starts to underpin from the the assumption debates on :that piracy‘Libraries libraries and arecopyright are, leaks if not in since piratical,the information then economy. As a state-funded the 1990s. Piracy and copyright has been a recurring theme politicised throughout history (c.f. Fredriksson, 2009, 2012, 2014; Johns, 2009). The clash between intellectual property and freedom of information – sometimes referred to as the copyright wars – was intensified by the proliferation of file-sharing technologies that followed in the wake of Napster, and the expansion of intellectual property rights that ©caught 2015 on in the 1990s. The conflicts intensified even more in 2006 From Helle Porsdam (ed.), Copyrightingwhen Creativity:Swedish authorities Creative initiated Values, a prosecution Cultural against Heritage the internationally Institutions and Systems of Intellectualacknowledged Property file-sharing, published site The Pirate by Bay, Ashgate partly at Publishing.the request of American media companies (Burkart, 2013; Fredriksson, 2013; Rydell and Sundberg, 2009). OverSee: time http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472431653 these debates over enclosure and access to knowledge have given rise to a growing popular resistance against what is perceived as copyright expansionism: a legislative development towards enclosure and privatisation of culture and 155 information. Today this pirate movement can be said to stretch from hardcore ‘hacktivists’www. asuchsh asg Anonymousate.co mto national political parties – so-called Pirate www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate.com www.ashgate. The Anarchist © Copyrighted Material 156 Parties – that seek parliamentary representation in order to protect the freedom of speech, access to information and rights to privacy in a digital world. disparate actors such as the pirate movement, libraries, and academia and how they relate to Thesemi-commercial first part of this actors chapter offering will freediscuss access the to intersections information betweensuch as apparently Google Books. This section partly draws on research interviews from an ongoing project about pirate parties in the United States, Europe, and Australia. part of the chapter asks whether actors like The Pirate Bay and Google Books can be regarded as new kinds of libraries, and how we in that case define a library: if it is just an institution that provides access to as much information as possible or if it also fulfils other functions. Eventually the text widens the scope and frames the discussion about libraries and access to information within the context of a new logic of open source capitalism. Here the increased use of cloud storage and data mining problematises the debates about free access to information as user data emerges as the new commodity that is extracted, shared and exploited in the © CopyrightedCopyrighting Material Creativity information society. The Pirate, the Librarian and the Open Source Capitalist The first Pirate Party was formed in Sweden in 2006, largely as a reaction to the police raid and following prosecution against The Pirate Bay, and the implementation of stricter copyright laws. Similar initiatives were soon taken in several other countries and they all shared a common focus on access to knowledge and protection of privacy in a digital society (Burkart, 2013; Fredriksson, 2013, 2015). It should come as no surprise that members of the Pirate Party have shown great enthusiasm for the librarians’ cause. The president of the youth branch of the Swedish Pirate Party, Gustav Nipe, expresses a deep concern over the e-book issue and claims that he is looking towards librarians for mutual support. Aligning with the libraries is not only an attempt to gain public credibility, it is also fully consistent with the pirate movement’s fundamental views on information politics: I’ve noticed that the same discussion that took place when they introduced Copyright material: You are not permittedthe to public transmit libraries this 100 fileyears in ago any is going format on again or today.media; ‘If people will