Warez Textz

He Warez it Well
Rhizome

The net vernacular term ‘warez’ is defined by the online resource Webopedia as follows: ‘commercial software that has been pirated and made available to the public via a BBS or the internet. Typically, the pirate has figured out a way to de-activate the copy-protection or registration scheme used by the software. Note that the use and distribution of warez software is illegal. In contrast, shareware and freeware may be freely copied and distributed…’ A riff on this paradigm is textz.com, an open archive of sometimes closed works of authorship. Curated by German artist and activist Sebastian Luetgert, the texts in the database include works by Baudelaire, Bataille, Adorno, and more technology oriented authors like Geert Lovink, McKenzie Wark and the Critical Art Ensemble. The warez on this site invoke a broad and progressive intellectual history, positioning them as analogues to software tools. Luetgert writes in an introduction to the site ‘…there was a time when content was king, but we have seen his head rolling. Our week beats their year. Ever since we have been moving from content to discontent, collecting scripts and viruses, writing programs and bots, dealing with textz as warez, as executables--something that is able to change your life.’ If texts like ‘Les fleurs du mal’ or ‘Empire’ can take on the character of artifacts or inert objects sitting on bookshelves, here they are reinscribed with some of their radical potential by being positioned as critical software. In tune with other cases of anti-piracy bullying, Luetgert is currently under legal and punitive siege (for sharing Adorno, of all things!). Browse the site for textual warez and stand on the side of fair use and free culture by putting up 'Free Adorno' banners or contributing to his legal battle. -- Rachel Greene

Textz