'5 Million Dollars 1 Terabyte': Pirated Data Displayed As Art

Artist Manuel Palou's new piece, '5 Million Dollars 1 Terabyte straddles the line between art and piracy.

The work is described on the gallery's website as: "a 1 TB Black External Hard Drive containing $5,000,000 worth of illegally downloaded files." Art 404 adds, "A full list of the files with clickable download links can be found here."

A companion work, 'Google Search For Meaning' (2011), is described as "an installation consisting of a pyramid shaped sculpture jutting out of the wall. A projector opposite of the sculpture projects a hacked version of Google Maps that drives through streetview automatically."

The work is displayed at Low Budget Gallery, the exhibition space of online portal Art 404, which Palou co-founded to address "the contemporary technological art movement." But does the work succeed as commentary, or is it merely an exercise in theft?