8. Cyberespace et organisations « virtuelles » : l'État souverain a-t-il encore un avenir ?

This article examines the role of ?pirate organizations? in the evolution of capitalist societies. Specifically, we argue that capitalist expansion takes place within territories ? for instance, cyberspace ? onto which the sovereign state seeks to impose norms, often followed by traditional corporations, but often contested by pirate organizations. Piracy, far from being merely a romanticized form of criminality, actually contributes to the coproduction of the ?rules of the game? in changing capitalist societies. We develop these ideas in the context of cyber-piracy and explain why pirates threaten the nation-state system inaugurated by the 17th century Treaty of Westphalia.