Piracy in the arts is the overarching theme of Incubate 2010. This theme is visible throughout all different parts of the festival program and will be especially investigated at the Pirate Conference on Friday September 17. Tickets for the conference are sold seperately from the festival tickets through incubate-innovation.org and you determine the ticket price. Arrr!

Matt Mason is one of the central speakers at the Pirate Conference. After the success of his book The Pirate’s Dilemma, Matt Mason is talking all over the world about innovation in the cultural scene, youth cultures and how to compete with pirates. First off, here’s a great promotional clip for his book, which is a great introduction to the subject of his book, if you haven’t read it yet. You can get a digital copy of the book via the Pirate’s Dilemma website, and you can determine your own price for it!

Next is a video of a speech Matt gave at the Deutscher Trendtag last year. In this presentation, he talks about how underground cultures have brought on the most innovative ideas, which later often have been adopted by many businesses. He also explains how to compete with piracy, stating that it not only has negative effects but that pirates sometimes also create solutions that literally change people’s lives. Again, his conclusion is very clear and clever: if you want to beat pirates, copy them.