Today at Northern Voice 2009, James Chutter presented on the evolutions of storytelling. He took us through the evolution of the mash-up, (possibly, but not likely) first appearing during the advent of the radio. Orson Wells "mashed" news radio with radio theatre in War of the Worlds. His brief history of mash-ups took us right through to modern day where we see mash-ups becoming prime time advertisements for the iPhone or sites like We Feel Fine which scrape the Internet for already existing content. However, his presentation was almost hijacked by a conversation around copyright laws. And though this really wasn't the main point of his presentation he later posted a blog entry in response. The presentation he posted, which I have posted below, poses a very interesting idea called "The Pirate's Dilemma". I certainly don't think that the author of the presentation condones piracy, but rather as an observer of the phenomenon asks us, for-profit business, to consider: "What if pirates are in fact some of the most incredible innovators on the face of the planet?" What do the foundations of American democracy, the record industry, and digital music stores have in common? Piracy. He says we (for-profit organizations) have two ways of dealing with pirates: law suits or competition. And either may be right depending on the situation. What if pirates present an opportunity or at least an early warning system for businesses that distribution networks could be more effective, the technology could be more innovative, or that our methods of advertising are dead?