UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY - DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY ARCHAEOLOGY AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
PERFECTURE OF THESSALY
International Conference:
Folk/Traditional/Popular Culture and the Internet
Volos, 6-7 November 2013
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Abstracts
- Petros Petridis (Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο)
Piracy, Intellectual Property and Digital Creativity in the Context of Peer to Peer Networks
This paper examines transformations of digital archives (music, movies, photos, software, etc.) both in terms of their regimes of value and in their status as intellectual property. Peer to peer networks appeared in the late 90s and constituted a virtual arena of conflict, dialogue and management among users, authors, intellectual property societies and the corporate world, regarding the concept of copyright.
More specifically, in this paper, I will focus on three main issues that emerge due to the file sharing practice. Firstly, P2P networks are usually represented as gift communities/economies opposed to the dominant monetary economy (recording industry, motion picture industry, software multinational companies). However, in most cases and in contrast to this kind of “exoticization”, sharing, gift, barter, commodity exchange and leeching coexist in such virtual spaces. Different networks with different rules and archiving structures result in quite different economic practices and heterotopias.
Secondly, the mere reduction of P2P networking to the practice of sharing is problematic, provided that a significant number of users are mainly oriented toward creativity and production of digital art. In other words, P2P networks do not merely constitute cultural spaces for the acquisition and circulation of copyrighted material, but spaces of creativity and innovation as well (subtitle creation, audio and video editing, remixes, etc.).
Finally, conflicting discourses and practices (by users, companies, legal organizations, etc.) raise issues regarding the perception and attitude toward intellectual property, ownership and the concepts of “original” and “copy”. P2P users seem to adopt a different approach and perception of these concepts. Instead of an absolute anathema of the idea of intellectual property and “quality”, they often enact strict "local" criteria in order to acknowledge and “secure” them.
