The Pirate Organization: Lessons From the Fringes of Capitalism Read Online Free PDF Page A

US sovereignty in cyberspace. To that end, they design cyberweapons such the Stuxnet and Flame viruses—incredibly sophisticated pieces of software that can send large plants and facilities spinning out of control, after having collected a wealth of data on enemy cyberinfrastructure. 7
    Pirate, Corsair, Pirate, Corsair, and So Forth
     
    All corsairs are pirates, except in the eyes of the state that is sending them on a mission. As we have seen, though, the state will often abandon its corsairs if the wind turns. That being said, not all pirates are corsairs. Some pirates form stateless hordes and attack everything in sight, with no regard for national allegiance. Between 1719 and 1722, the pirate fleet of Captain Bartholomew Roberts boarded dozens of ships on Caribbean seas, as well as along the coasts of Africa, North America, and Brazil. No historical document can prove that Roberts worked on behalf of a particular sovereign, although it was rare for a pirate to remain self-employed throughout his life.
    In reality, a pirate was usually an old merchant or an old corsair or both. Francis Drake, for example, took part in many pirate expeditions before he became an English corsair. Later, he returned to the pirate life, but in 1581 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, which made him a corsair in the eyes of God. 8 A century later, Captain William Dampier, among many others, took a similar path, switching between the roles of corsair and pirate in the early days of a long career in which he fought in the navy against the Dutch, before retiring to a pirate community in Jamaica. 9 Biographies of cyberpirates are not much different: the red visitor was a former black visitor, who, after being abandoned by China, went back to his original color. The same was true of pirate radio DJs who were recruited by governments during both World Wars to broadcast information on their behalf.
    Sometimes a pirate, sometimes a corsair. Individual roles changed. But the organizations remained the same. Individual pirates and corsairs should neither be confused nor seen as extreme opposites. But in fact, the relevant distinction should be made at the organizational level: the pirate organization differs from the corsair organization with respect to its position vis-à-vis the sovereign state. In a constantly expanding capitalistic space, the pirate organization and the corsair organization bend sovereign norms in opposite directions, and it is important to adopt the Flemish perspective and equip ourselves with a magnifying glass to not lose track of such an essential difference.
    The definition of piracy is the result of a power differential between sovereign states. As a state seeks to expand its reach, the number of individuals it considers to be pirates tends to increase. A reinforced monopoly, a more favorable trade agreement, and a more powerful navy are just some of the factors that produce pirates through exclusion, the pirate being the one living outside the boundaries defined by the sovereign. A bolder tracing of these boundaries consequently increases the intensity of the pirate threat.
    Piracy is the product of geopolitics, since it appears precisely at the point where territorial space and the normative network emanating from a sovereign authority meet.
    Rather than contrasting pirates and corsairs in absolute terms, we must acknowledge that the two roles are often endorsed by the same individuals at different points in time. And we should shift our attention to the much more important divide between the pirate organization and the corsair organization, which, independent of the particular individuals they employ, represent two stable patterns of social action. How positive or negative their influence is on social norms, capitalist expansion, or the development of new industries is only a matter of (Flemish) perspective.

Chapter Five
     
    WHAT IS THE PIRATE ORGANIZATION?
     
One sometimes has the impression that the flows of capital