The Firefox add-on "Pirates of the Amazon" inserts a "download 4 free" button on Amazon, which links to corresponding Piratebay BitTorrents. The add-on lowers the technical barrier to enable anyone to choose between "add to shopping cart" or "download 4 free". Are you a pirate?
This add-on provides a simple interface to torrent files, combining a torrent search engine with the information features offered by amazon. It also shows that there is an alternative to buying overpriced media-products from companies relying on outdated distribution techniques.
"Pirates of the Amazon" offers to be a counterpart to the current models of media distribution. "Redistribute the wealth" by bringing together one of the world's biggest e-commerce platforms with the world's largest BitTorrent tracker.
Established media distributors claim that peer-to-peer networks are the death for entertainment media itself. These claims sound quite similar to the ones about the printing press or the invention of VCRs or CDR-Drives. The truth is that the possibility of information sharing inspires people to start creating, remixing and enriching the media landscape.
"Lets build a world we are proud of, not just a profitable world for a few very large media companies. " (Brewster Kahle, founder of the internet archive )
For more information on piracy and the BitTorrent protocol follow these links:
- "After the crash, or how we stopped worrying and learned to love P2P" by Jamie King
- Piratology by Armin Medosch
- Peer-to-Peer on Wikipedia
- The Pirate Bay on Wikipedia
There have been similar browser modifications on the internet for quite a while such as the IMDB popular torrent search Firefox Greasemonkey script that adds links to torrent search results on the IMDB website.
The OU Library Amazon Greasemonkey Script uses Amazon as an interface to find books at public libraries. (Rent 4 free)
The project Amazon Noir by the net artists ubermorgen.com allowed users to download free books from amazon by overusing the amazon "search inside" function.
We are not affiliated with the Piratebay, and do not host or even link to any illegal content. This artistic project addresses the topic of current media distribution models vs. current culture and technical possibilities. When you choose to install the add-on, you modify the local behaviour of your webbrowser. If you download content through a torrent link, provided by the Piratebay, you might violate current copyright laws.
The Pirates of the Amazon (Enrique B. and John S.) are supported by the Piet Zwart Institute and moddr_ medialab.
