After Google Will Eat Itself (previous post), ubermorgen.com, Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico are working on a new “subversive happening.” They plan to use the 10,000 euro stipend that Hans Bernhard received from Edith Russ Site for media art in Oldenburg (DE) to undermine the online copyright of Amazon and allow users to obtain books from Amazon for free.
Amazon Noir – The Big Book Crime, which for its action will take its cue from the “film noir” school of cinematography, intends to [point out] “the hypocrisy of the digital copyright lobby.” The software bot the artists mean to deploy will be ready by this autumn. The bot will outwit Amazon’s “search inside the book” system, making up to 5.000 inquiries per book and assembling the individual parts afterwards to compile entire books. This would allow “users to ‘legally’ copy and redistribute copyright books from amazon.com.”
The piece is a performative media-installation and thus continues the historical tradition of happenings and performance art. Provoking reactions from conventional media and business is an integral part of the project.
“We will protect our rights. No information on the matter will be made public,” an Amazon spokeswoman said to German news agency dpa.
Related: Forum IV – Net Vision: [v]ote-auction by ubermorgen.com.