Digital Piracy/ Filesharing

"The Piracy Crusade examines the music industry’s overreaction to the threat of digital piracy, and the resulting damage done to our economy, culture and society. It challenges the commonly-accepted myth that piracy is killing the music industry, exploring the unheralded benefits of digital sharing, and the “perfect storm” of economic factors – many of them self-inflicted – that burst the industry’s bubble.

The book critiques the premise of digital piracy itself, arguing that today’s file sharers, music bloggers and mashup artists are simply making use of new technologies to recuperate music from its 20th Century status as an entertainment commodity, and returning it to its original role as a medium for interpersonal and group communication.

Finally, The Piracy Crusade reveals how a flood of new laws and policies enacted in the name of combating piracy have undermined free speech, privacy and cultural innovation – all for the sake of protecting an outmoded media cartel."

Regarding efficiency, efficacy and incentive, free-sharing online (of recordings, live broadcasts , software and published works) outperforms market and property systems by reducing costs of production and distribution, increasing quality and access and better promoting creativity. Free-sharing online emerged within " global network capitalism " and non-capitalist networks. Free-sharing of purely informational content online challenges capitalism by eliminating scarcity. However, post-scarcity is limited by constraints on time and the capacity to filter digital plenitude. These limits create scope for alternative business models. Free-sharing online tempers capitalism's " tragedy of the anticommons ". However, to date, post-scarcity remains incomplete.

Czech: Příspěvek se věnuje aktuální problematice nahrávání a sdílení filmů ze strany drobných " pirátů " a otázce legálnosti sledování těchto autorských děl uživateli. Smyslem příspěvku je zprostředkovat pohled z právní praxe panující v České republice a přiblížit, jakým důsledkům čelí drobní " piráti " v trestním a civilním řízení, a to se zaměřením na způsob vyčíslení odškodnění požadovaného ze strany filmových distributorů.

English: The paper focuses on the current issue of "petty piracy" related to movie uploading and sharing and deals with the legality of watching this copyright material by users. The main aim of the paper is to provide a view of legal practice in the Czech Republic and to present the consequences of illegal activities for "pirates" in criminal and civil proceedings, focusing on the methods for calculation of compensation requested by film distributors.

Wolna kultura" to nazwa specyficznego ruchu społecznego, ściśle związanego, i to na różnych płaszczyznach, z przemianami społecznymi wynikającymi z przechodzenia społeczeństwa industrialnego na informacyjne. Aby osiągnąć postawiony sobie cel, czyli opisać i przeprowadzić analizę tego ruchu, należy zacząć od wyjaśnienia, jakie zjawiska społeczne określamy pojęciem ruchów społecznych, wskazać róż ne ich rodzaje, a w szczególności odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czym są "nowe ruchy społeczne". Zabieg ten uczyni możliwym wykazanie, dlaczego zaliczamy do nich "wolną kulturę", umożliwijej analizę oraz pozwoli zrozumieć jej miejsce wśród całej gamy różnych ruchów.

While there may be a substantial potential for media and entertainment products in new electronic market channels, content producers and owners remain sceptical and are cautious to utilize these new market opportunities. Piracy and the fear of losing control over their property in the new channels constitute the basis for their scepticism. Applying a public good approach to the economic analysis of this problem reveals that there is no easy way of cir- cumventing the problem, but that it may be most successfully solved by increasing the degree of excludability for media and entertainment content also in these new channels. Excludability is a non- intrinsic economic product characteristic, which may be adjusted through a com- bination of property rights and technology. Further institutional and technological efforts towards establishing excludability will thus encourage e-commerce with media and entertainment products. While alternative solutions such as first release strategies and claiming payments from related markets may exist for certain con- tent categories, the excludability solution will enable the new electronic market channels to tap into vast libraries of recorded media and entertainment products and thus utilize the channels’ full potential.

Peer-to-peer file sharing and other forms of free online music distribution have played a complex and contentious role in the ongoing transformation of musical culture and economics. While the recording industry decries these services as “rogue technologies” and has painted their hundreds of millions of users as “pirates,” research shows that it is  difficult if not impossible to ascertain whether P2P has a positive, negative or neutral effect on music sales. The evidence also suggests that, in many ways, free sharing grows the overall music economy, empowers and enriches recording artists, and contributes to a more vibrant musical culture. These benefits, which contrast with the historical powerlessness and poverty faced by most musicians in the traditional music economy, help to explain why so many artists today publicly support and actively employ P2P and free online sharing as crucial elements in their business and marketing strategies, and indeed why so many labels are taking advantage of the benefits of free online distribution even as they pursue legal challenges and publicity campaigns against them.

Analisamos o fenômeno da circulação informal de cinema na internet, oferecendo uma orientação sistemática dentro do vasto universo das redes de distribuição que se encontram às margens do mercado oficial. A pirataria é estudada como uma atividade cultural que corresponde a uma gama de interesses coletivos de dimensão global e se relaciona com as políticas normativas, a crítica à propriedade intelectual, a desobediência civil, o mercado, as inovações tecnológicas, a cultura participativa e as economias informais. Fazemos um recorte no universo de circulação informal para analisar, especificamente, a relação entre as redes BitTorrent, a distribuição de cinema e a cibercinefilia, apontando para o caráter híbrido dessas redes, onde meios informais e formais convergem, elementos técnicos combinam-se, nichos e culturas globais dialogam, sensibilidades morais relativizam-se, discursos, práticas cotidianas e ações políticas se desenvolvem e onde mercados se transformam. Demonstramos que, dentro do espaço não autorizado de circulação, podem ser encontrados centros especializados de distribuição com dimensão simbólica própria, que manifestam sentidos sobre o cinema, que se desenvolvem sob a influência de um imaginário cinéfilo e multicultural. 
Palavras-chave: Comunicação, Cinema, Circulação Informal, Internet, BitTorrent, Pirataria, Cinefilia. 

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This research analyses the phenomenon of informal film circulation on Internet, building a systematic orientation within the vast universe of distribution networks. Piracy is a cultural activity that corresponds to a range of collective interests of global dimension and relates to regulatory policies, critical intellectual property, civil disobedience, market, technological innovations participatory culture and informal economies. This study explores the relations between BitTorrent networks, cinema distribution and cibercinephilia, pointing to networks with hybrid nature, where informal and formal media converge, technical elements combine, niches and global cultures dialogue, moral sensibilities-relativize, speeches, daily practices and political actions are developed and where markets are transformed. We have shown that, within the space of unauthorized circulation, specialized distribution hubs have their own symbolic dimension, which manifest particular senses about cinema, under the influence of a movie buff and multicultural imaginary.
Keywords: Communication, Cinema, informal circulation, Internet, BitTorrent, Piracy, Cinephilia

This paper proposes the design and experimentation of digital control of soft-switched interleaved boost converter using FPGA for Telecommunication System. The switching devices in the proposed converter are turned on and off with Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) and Zero Current Switching (ZCS) respectively. The circuit is operated in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) with various load ranges having duty cycle of more than 50%. The proposed converter is studied by developing the simulation module in MATLAB/SIMULINK. A PI controller is designed and implemented in FPGA to obtain a regulated DC output for line and load variations. Simulation and experimentation results are verified with a prototype development of the proposed converter. The results indicate that the converter performance is enhanced with closed loop control.

Access control is one of the key attributes of a virtual monopoly. Intellectual Property Law was initially developed as an instrument for creating such economic space. Meanwhile this area is constantly confronted with an issue, which rather detects consistent and irreversible ruining of this monopoly. Access control over digital content has a permanent amplification / loss cycle. Unprecedented control strengthening over users activities via DRM exists next to the contemporary loss of control over content distribution by its owners. Significant toughening of penalties for intellectual property crimes takes these cycles to a new spin.
Introduction of software as a third party in communication of users and owners changes the character of their interaction. Software is influenced by actions of developers, owners, users, pirates and launches itself ‘scripted’ and ‘nonscripted’ (not documented) impact variants. Everyday work with technology is being transformed into a complex communication and interaction chain.
This issue is being studied in conceptual frame of  schismogenesis suggested by Gregory Bateson in its symmetric version, which represents communicative contradictions.
The main task is to engage language and ontology of actor-network theory (ANT) in search of hidden symmetrical patterns in software. Software determines the character of emerging communities and ways of their communication with other communities.

Moroccan post-colonial cinema has suffered from the lack of adequate channels of domestic and international distribution and exhibition for most of its relatively short history. Despite the existence of a burgeoning distribution business and a wide network of cinemas across the country, distributors were broadly not interested in investing in national films until the 1990s. Up until that point in time, local films were not deemed interesting or lucrative enough in comparison with high-grossing Hollywood and Bollywood movies , which, due to their mass production scale, cost many times less per copy than local productions. However, things began to change in the early 1990s when a lone investor decided to distribute Abdelkader Lagtaâ's H UB FI D AR AL-BEIDA ("A LOVE AFFAIR IN CASABLANCA " 1991). The film was an instant box office hit and, in the process, proved beyond doubt that the distribution and exhibition of national films could make a profit. Distribution has subsequently played a crucial role in the growth of Moroccan cinema in both quantitative and qualitative terms. However, national cinema today faces new distribution and exhibition challenges, in particular the decline of cinema theatres and the emergence of film piracy. The latter is said to have seriously undermined the economic profitability of the legal distribution economy. In this essay, I want to argue against the grain of the pessimism characterizing the dominant discourse about the future of Moroccan cinema in the face of these two challenges. My argument is that film theatre closures and the prevalence of online and offline piracy are not in themselves life-threatening to Moroccan cinema. Instead, they are indicators of how a post-colonial cinema is adapting to the challenges of globalization and the digital revolution. Moroccan films are increasingly watched at home or on mobile devices rather than on big screens in dark rooms. In the same vein, the proliferation of online and CD-based piracy is not proven to have discouraged people from going to the cinemas to watch Moroccan films. The decline of filmgoing culture has other, much deeper social, demographic, and technological causes. The rise of new forms of circulation and consumption of Moroccan cinema in the twenty-first century is a sign of the emergence of novel and dynamic forms of “popular” film distribution and viewership.

This essay will attempt to summarize the field of intellectual property (IP), a term which encompasses specific rights to works that exist as ideas, such as copyright, patent, and trademarks. It will examine the history of IP in its economic, legal and philosophical dimensions, lingering on several major "case studies" to exemplify particular points. These points are rather basic: first, that IP, as a form of private property, is an element of a capitalist system 1 , and must be contextualized as such. This means not only examining the laws that are crafted, deployed, and refashioned during struggles over IP, but also the political and economic concerns which put the legal system in play.

O objetivo desta dissertação é investigar a relação conceitual entre a Antropofagia e a Cultura do Remix, entender os conflitos no campo do direito autoral provocados pelas práticas de compartilhamento cultural, assim como analisar as políticas públicas desenvolvidas pelo Ministério da Cultura durante o Governo Lula, para adequar a legislação autoral à Cultura Digital.

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the conceptual relationship between Antropophagy and Remix Culture, to understand the conflicts in the field of copyright caused by cultural sharing practices, as well as to examine cultural policies developed by the Ministry of Culture during the Lula government, to adjust copyright law to digital culture.

computer science student at Boston's Northeastern University. It provided a platform for users to upload and download music files in a compressed digital format (MP3). It provided Music Share software freely available for Internet users to download. Users who obtain Napster's software could then share MP3 music files with others logged-on to the Napster system.

How did we get from Hollywood to YouTube? What makes Wikipedia so different from a traditional encyclopedia? Has blogging dismantled journalism as we know it?

Our media landscape has undergone a seismic shift as digital technology has fostered the rise of "participatory culture," in which knowledge is originated, created, distributed, and evaluated in radically new ways. The Participatory Cultures Handbook is an indispensable, interdisciplinary guide to this rapidly changing terrain. With short, accessible essays from leading geographers, political scientists, communication theorists, game designers, activists, policy makers, physicists, and poets, this volume will introduce students to the concept of participatory culture, explain how researchers approach participatory culture studies, and provide original examples of participatory culture in action. Topics include crowdsourcing, crisis mapping, grid computing, digital activism in authoritarian countries, collaborative poetry, collective intelligence, participatory budgeting, and the relationship between video games and civic engagement.

Contributors include: Daren Brabham, Helen Burgess, Clay Calvert, Mia Consalvo, Kelly Czarnecki, David M. Faris, Dieter Fuchs, Owen Gallagher, Clive Goodinson, Alexander Halvais, Cynthia Hawkins, John Heaven, The Jannissary Collective, Henry Jenkins, Barry Joseph, Christopher Kelty, Pierre Lévy, Sophia B. Liu, Rolf Luehrs, Patrick Meier, Jason Mittell, Sarah Pearce, W. James Potter, Howard Rheingold, Suzanne Scott, Benjamin Stokes, Thomas Swiss, Paul Taylor, Will Venters, Jen Ziemke

Edited by Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Jacobs Henderson

SUMARIO
l. INTERNET COMO NUEVO CANAL DE EXPANSIÓN DE LA PIRATERÍA Y LAS DIFICULTADES DE PERSECUCIÓN.
II. RESPUESTA LEGAL FRENTE A LOS ATENTADOS A LA PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL A TRAVÉS DE INTERNET.
III. DISTINTAS FÓRMULAS LESIVAS DE LOS DERECHOS DE AUTOR EN INTERNET Y SU SUBSUNCIÓN EN EL ART. 270.
IV. EL RESULTADO TÍPICO.
V. LA EXIGENCIA PENAL TÍPICA DEL ÁNIMO DE LUCRO FRENTE A LA DIFUSIÓN ALTRUISTA EN LA RED.
VI. TIPO AGRAVADO Y CONSECUENCIAS ACCESORIAS
Vil. CRITERIOS DE IMPUTACIÓN RESPECTO A LOS PROVEEDORES DE SERVICIOS (ISPs) POR DELITOS CONTRA LA PROPIEDAD INTELECTUAL LLEVADOS A CABO A TRAVÉS DE INTERNET.

This chapter assesses the future trends and trajectory of the optical media piracy. It traces briefly the development of media piracy from the VCR technology using the cassette format to the current digital and nanotechnology using the Internet and file sharing protocols. Optical disc piracy will be a transitory phenomenon in developing countries with underdeveloped IP and Internet culture. As the country increases in Internet penetration, the locus of media piracy shifts from the temporal space of the sidewalk stalls selling pirated DVDs or illegal CD-DVD shops to the cyber space of the Internet. The use of discs becomes less popular as media piracy becomes more convenient, easier and cheaper with direct illegal downloading, peer-to-peer sharing, and other evasive techniques using the latest sophisticated hardware and software technologies. This chapter then examines some popular and current online digital piracy such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing, cyberlocker, media box, anti-circumvention technology, digital spying and hacking, and other Internet piracy supported by digital, cloud and nanotechnology. This chapter also makes projections on media piracy would look like with the advent of quantum computing and technology. Media piracy follows technological advancement and innovation, thus difficult for authorities to curb as it uses the same technology used by copyright holders which provides infringers with a variety of options to respond regulation. Finally, this chapter examines the difficulty of regulating the Internet and the role and future involvement of China in counterfeiting and media piracy. With the rise of online media piracy, regulating the Internet would then be the main challenge of law enforcement and copyright owners as regulating the Internet to curb piracy would not be easy with legality and illegality becoming more intimately connected with the growing sophistication of technology and conflicting business interests between service providers and content providers, and between copyright industries and top IT and ICT.

This book aims to identify, analyze, and systematize the available research on counterfeiting and piracy published over a thirty-five year time span (1980–2015) in order to highlight the main trends in the illicit trade literature, propose suggestions for managers battling against illicit trade, and provide a starting point for future research. Counterfeiting and piracy, i.e., the violation of intellectual property rights (IPRs), including trademarks, copyright, and patents, have been investigated across a multitude of fields, from ethics to marketing, from law to business, from criminology to psychology. While the number of contributions has been substantial, research on both demand and supply has been fragmented and has at times yielded contradictory results. In addition, the lack of an extensive, interdisciplinary, and up-to-date literature review has made it hard to fully understand what aspects of the phenomenon need further clarification in order to stem consumer demand and provide meaningful suggestions to companies combatting illicit trade daily. A systematization of the existing literature is absolutely paramount and this need is fully met by this book.

With the ever growing disenfranchisement of musicians and artists in the in ability of government entities to enforce stricter and favourable music quota which aim to increase the consumption of local music by increasing the current music quota as it stands from 25% to at least 60% for commercial radio, with more and more musicians calling for an increase in the current quota. In an open letter to the then Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Pallo Jordan from the South African Music Quota Committee (SAMQC) (Oct 2007) they voiced their concerns:
“The SA content quota of 25% for commercial radio is not only too low, it is also often meaningless, because The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) allows stations to include gig guides, interviews and promotions as part of their local quota.
You state, and we agree, that “cultural industries are serious business”. The structures protecting the national interest in iron, minerals, fishing, sport and many other areas are strongly enforced and defended here in South Africa. Why not our music?”
More initiatives such as the “Play Local of Die” campaign whose aim is to urge commercial broadcasters to increase their local content with regards to commercial radios stations playlist was launched by South African Hip Hop artist commonly known as JR (Real Name: JR Bogopa) to further exhibit the South African musicians plight in how pivotal it is to their careers and overall financial well-being that the current quota be raised significantly.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of local content quota on domestic radio broadcasters in South Africa. The population for this study included 100 radio station which broadcast in the republic of South Africa. The response rate for the e-mail questionnaire was 100% of the 100 respondents. A Likert-type scale instrument consisted of 39 questions divided into two sections: Section one looked at the demographic profile of the respondents and section two focused on getting
v
responses on the factors impacting local content quota and domestic broadcasters, namely local content quota, implications for domestic broadcasters, revenue streams, impact on local musicians, governments role in local content quota, success factors, globalisation and piracy.
In order to realise the purpose of this study, the following research design was used:
Step 1 A literature review was conducted to determine the various factors impacting local artists, local broadcasters and local content quota.
Step 2 A questionnaire was composed according to the principles and guidelines in steps 1.
Step 3 Empirical data was obtained with the aid of an e-mail survey.
Step 4 The results of the data were analysed and interpreted.
Step 5 The empirical results were integrated with Step 3.
Step 6 Conclusions and recommendations were completed.
The main findings from the study were:
 The study revealed that the radio industry is not unanimous in the call from artists for government to increase the local content quota and thus prefer that the current status quo continue.
 That local content quota are not the only way to curb the South African music industry’s woes, artists should seek to maximise their revenue by exploiting the infinite avenues for revenue that globalisation avails.

Piracy is taking on an entirely new character in the age of media in the cloud. Global technology and business models are evolving rapidly, while regulators and lawmakers are catching up in attempts to work out a new set of rules of engagement. In this article, I explore the divergent developments between a retrograde global copyright governance regime and cloud-based media distribution that focuses on connectivity and access. I also examine attempts at business model innovation that seek to effectively embrace and control the continually evolving user–content– platform interaction in the cloud. This article will contribute to our understanding of this rapidly changing ecosystem and the dynamics between technology, law and market.

A lo largo de los últimos años, la influencia de las nuevas tecnologías en la industria audiovisual ha demostrado una ascendente e imparable importancia. La revolución digital, sustrato tecnológico de este proceso de cambio, ha provocado una subversión en los modelos de explotación de los contenidos audiovisuales. Estas transformaciones apuntan, sobre todo, a tres aspectos: tecnológicos, económicos y sociales, cuya participación podría derivar en una inversión de la concepción misma del espectáculo cinematográfico. Esta investigación surge con el ánimo de comprobar la existencia en España de un modelo de acceso no comercial a contenidos audiovisuales en Internet que pueda quebrar la hegemonía de la industria cinematográfica y televisiva. El proceso de digitalización, catalizador de la difusión de contenidos cinematográficos y televisivos en la Red, nace a raíz de la innovación disruptiva que supuso la aparición de la tecnología de codificación binaria. Este tipo de transformaciones reestructuran de forma completa la propia esencia de las entidades a las que afecta. En este sentido, el intercambio no comercial de material fílmico en Internet ha supuesto una ruptura con el orden precedente. De toda esta situación nacieron distintas herramientas que permiten a los internautas la compartición de todo tipo de contenidos cinematográficos y televisivos, y con ello, modificar de forma definitiva los hábitos de consumo de los espectadores. La separación de soporte y contenido que produjo la asimilación de la tecnología digital por parte de la industria y que habilitó la libre difusión de obras audiovisuales en Internet ha supuesto un punto sin retorno en la distribución de contenidos. Este cambio de hábitos de consumo por parte de los espectadores españoles se refleja en un deseo de inmediatez y de movilidad y provoca un elevado índice de consumo de contenidos audiovisuales por vías no oficiales. Estos usuarios descargan material de forma gratuita sobre todo porque las plataformas oficiales son demasiado caras, su catálogo resulta mucho más limitado que los modelos no comerciales y además son menos accesibles. Por tanto, la forma de atraer a estos usuarios a los sistemas comerciales sería posible sólo a través de servicios que ofrezcan una gran selección de material, disponible de forma directa y a precio razonable.

Esta tese tem como temática a distribuição do entretenimento no campo digital – filmes, músicas, e produções correlatas –, e(m) sua relação com a tecnologia streaming (legal) e com a “pirataria” digital. Mais especificamente, este estudo aborda as relacionalidades de tais atores, enfatizando suas dinâmicas de coprodução e capacidades de habitação do acesso ao entretenimento e do regime de propriedade intelectual. Esta investigação objetiva analisar as relações que se instauram entre streaming (legal) e a “pirataria”, que atravessam, tensionam e (re)produzem o entretenimento distribuído ao público na atualidade. A partir de tal objetivo, é possível perceber que os arranjos do acesso e do consumo ao entretenimento são delineados não somente pela indústria fonográfica e cinematográfica, mas por elos legais e ilegais produtivos e transformadores das relações entre indústria, leis e “pirataria”. Neste processo, são sublinhadas características fluídas e estratégias contíguas entre tais categorias e agentes – a indústria e a “pirataria”. Também é possível visualizar os meios “piratas” e as plataformas de streaming como atores dotados de capacidades (d)e modos de habitarem (ocuparem, povoarem) o regime de propriedade intelectual, (re)configurando-o, atualizando-o e adaptando-o a seus interesses. Concluo que a distribuição do entretenimento é atravessada por elos legais/ilegais que, atuando em coautoria, interferem, habitam e atualizam a vida social, práticas sociotécnicas e as leis de regime de propriedade intelectual.

This dissertation is an analysis of criminal enforcement of digital copyrights. I argue that an international prohibition regime to govern intellectual property rights (IPR) has emerged through systems of international trade and law enforcement. The regime, or international system of norms and decisionmaking procedures, is supported primarily by the United States, the European Union, and multinational intellectual property industries, and these stakeholders are consistently creating measures to strengthen intellectual property (IP) enforcement to include criminal sanctions. The question guiding the research is how the governance of IP enforcement through the international prohibition regime affects the legitimacy of intellectual property law enforcement. I engage the research question through case study analysis that adopts a critical legal methodology and relevant stakeholder analysis.

The Czech theatrical market faces a major digital piracy problem. The availability of illegitimate digital distribution channels represents a challenge for managers, especially when original movies are uploaded to the Internet before or during their theatrical release.

The crucial managerial task is to solve the problems of losses caused by piracy, and to find a balance between antipiracy investment and the maximal benefits it brings. Therefore, to maximize stakeholder utility, management decision-making needs to be complemented and supported. Firstly, the research investigates the basis of digital piracy, discusses the effects it causes, focuses on relevant stakeholders. The thesis deals with knowledge management and system dynamics using its principles and approaches and proposes a model supporting strategic management decision-making.
The created knowledge-based computational model simulates the market's development of the Czech theatrical industry related to digital film piracy in the following scenarios: current market settings, industry-based administration, government-based administration and a mixture of the last two; the results of the different scenarios are discussed, evaluated and compared.

The findings indicate that with the current settings in the Czech theatrical industry, the losses caused by digital piracy keep increasing linearly. Industry-based administration implies that the losses level off with a negligible yearly increase and the government-based solution reduces the losses more than the industrial administration. Nevertheless, the results show minor differences in total box office revenues, while differences in antipiracy costs are vast. Therefore, the predictive experiment based on the current market environment represents the most efficient version of the experiments.

Even though losses are, the highest, real box office revenues are only a little different. Simply put, a moderate increase in box office revenues paid for by massive investments into antipiracy seems inefficient.

Ort: das Internet. Zeit: 1998-2008. Über zehn Jahre hinweg schrieb gulli.com die Internet-, Netzkultur- und Rechtsgeschichte mit. Neben dem Wandel des Internet zum Massenmedium, Dotcomboom und Abmahnwahn, dem Aufkommen der Blogs, dem Niedergang der Musikindustrie und vieler anderer vermeintlicher und realer Internetrevolutionen wurde eine kleine Seite zu einer der Top50-Sites im deutschsprachigen Netz. Die Geschichte von gulli.com und einigen Leuten dahinter.

Analysis of the various levels of contemporary film experience in India, from changes in the industry's corporate organisation, through its generation of new genres and product differentiation, and onto contests with the pirate economy of video circulation

Esta tese tem como principal objetivo ajudar a preencher o défice de pesquisa teórico-empírica com origem nos países lusófonos em torno do confronto aparente entre os direitos dos utilizadores de Internet e a aplicação dos direitos de propriedade intelectual. Recorrendo a um olhar interdisciplinar (comunicacional, sociológico, económico e jurídico), visa colocar em relevo o novo papel dos utilizadores de obras culturais enquanto distribuidores proporcionado pelas plataformas informais paralelas aos circuitos legais de distribuição.

A primeira parte, de cariz teórico, inicia-se com uma genealogia histórica dos conceitos de pirataria, direito de autor, copyright e propriedade intelectual para prosseguir com uma exposição dos fundamentos para uma crítica da economia política da informação, seguindo-se um retrato da evolução tecnológica e comercial da partilha de ficheiros ao longo da última década e meia. Quase a terminar, encontra-se um resumo da literatura mais relevante sobre a relação entre vendas e cópias não autorizadas de bens informacionais, assim como uma apresentação dos principais resultados de centenas de estudos quantitativos incidindo nos comportamentos dos utilizadores e nas motivações que os levam a descarregar obras protegidas por direitos de autor. Por fim, procede-se a uma análise comparativa de um conjunto de indicadores estatísticos relativos aos níveis de penetração das TICs em Portugal e no Brasil e às atividades online dos utilizadores de Internet de ambos os países.

A segunda parte consiste numa análise empírica dos comportamentos e perceções dos utilizadores portugueses e brasileiros de redes peer-to-peer (P2P) e sites que permitem efetuar cópias não autorizadas de obras protegidas por direitos de autor. Para tal, irei socorrer-me das respostas de 301 indivíduos de ambas as nacionalidades a um inquérito online bem como nas declarações posteriores de 16 desses inquiridos recolhidas por entrevista online.

Com esta pesquisa pretende-se demonstrar que, longe de ser uma mera falha de mercado, a partilha é antes uma dimensão fundamental da cultura (Aigrain 2011). Visto deste prisma, as limitações da perspetiva economicista da contabilização dos eventuais prejuízos tornam-se evidentes.

P2P Culture: A comparative sociological analysis of sites and networks for online sharing of music, movies and ebooks in Portugal and Brazil

Abstract: This thesis has for its main goal to help fill the gap of theoretical and empirical research originating from Portuguese-speaking countries concerning the apparent clash between the rights of Internet users and the enforcement of intellectual property laws. By way of an interdisciplinary lens gathering contributions from communication science, sociology, economics and law, it intends to shed light on the new role of users of cultural works as distributors – a role amplified by informal platforms parallel to formal distribution circuits.

The first part, of a theoretical nature, starts with a historical genealogy of concepts such as piracy, copyright, droit d’auteur and intellectual property, followed by a presentation of the technological and commercial evolution of file sharing over the past decade and a half.
Next comes an overview of the most relevant literature on the relationship between sales and unauthorized copies of information goods, as well as a synthesis of the main results of hundreds of quantitative studies covering the behaviors of file-sharers and their motives for downloading copyrighted works. Finally, this part ends with a comparative analysis of a set of statistical indicators regarding the penetration levels of ICTs in Portugal and Brazil as well as on the most popular online activities of Internet users in both countries.

The second part comprises an empirical analysis of the behaviors and perceptions of Portuguese and Brazilian users of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks and sites enabling the unauthorized copying of copyrighted works. The analysis will be based on the answers of 301 individuals of both nationalities to an online survey, as well as on the subsequent statements made by 16 of these respondents in the context of a series of online interviews.

With this research, it is my aim to show that, rather than being only a market failure, sharing is instead a fundamental dimension of culture (Aigrain 2011) Seen in this light, the constraints of an economic perspective exclusively aimed at measuring any possible losses become evident.

Abstract:

This chapter provides an overview of the content of this book. It traces briefly the background on how the media piracy in the Philippines and Vietnam has grown through the years despite the hegemonic pressure of the United States Trade Representative and the government efforts of the Philippines and Vietnam to reform their respective Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws and local copyright protection system. It reviews some popular and prescriptive theories on why media piracy persists in developing countries and explains why the sociological perspective, particularly the relational and network approach of the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) can be an appropriate theoretical framework to understand comprehensively the persistence of media piracy in the Philippines and Vietnam. Furthermore, it describes the book's main objectives as well as the data source and research method which are used in the two subsequent sociological studies that became the basis of this book. Finally, it defines some major terms on media piracy which are often cited in the text and provides a roadmap for the book, describing briefly the content of each chapter and how the chapters are interconnected with one another to achieve the book's overall purpose.

This thesis examines the extent to which new practices of principled acts of illegal resistance that involve the use of digital technologies can fruitfully be interpreted as new forms of civil disobedience. The study focuses on three kinds of digital acts: whistleblowing, anonymous hacktivism, and radical initiatives to open access to academic publications. Through a detailed reconstruction of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, some of Anonymous’ distributed denial of service (DDoS) actions, and Sci-Hub’s and LibGen’s academic piracy, the thesis interrogates a large variety of positions from traditional liberal theories to more recent radical democratic accounts of civil disobedience. The investigation centers on the problems of whether civil disobedience can take place within and against private organizations such as corporations, if it necessarily excludes anonymous actions, and if property damage and other forms of somewhat violent actions are unavoidably incompatible with civility. The author offers an interpretation of the ‘civil’ of civil disobedience not as decorum, reasonableness, or respect for the law, but as the enactment of a broadly construed citizenship that is not limited to those officially recognized as citizens of a state. The notion of performative citizenship is proposed as a non-substantive essentially pluralist notion of civility that, together with the conditions of non-militarism and self-restraint, makes the radical democratic minimal definition of civil disobedience better-suited to account for ongoing transformations of the practices of contestation due to their increasing globalization and digitalization.

Using Schatzki’s practices framework as a lens, this paper reports on the practices of university students accessing learning resources at a research-intensive  university in South Africa. Using a mixed methods approach, 1001 survey responses and six focus groups were analysed to explore how students in three professional disciplines access learning resources, with the focus on digitally-mediated piracy practices. The findings suggest a blurring between the legal and the illegal and indicate the normalcy of piracy practices, with nuanced distinctions and understandings manifest.

This chapter provides an overview of the content of this book. It traces briefly the background on how the media piracy in the Philippines and Vietnam has grown through the years despite the hegemonic pressure of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the government efforts of the Philippines and Vietnam to reform their respective Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws and local copyright protection system. It reviews some popular and prescriptive theories on why media piracy persists in developing countries and explains why the sociological perspective, particularly the relational and network approach of the actor–network theory (ANT), can be an appropriate theoretical framework to understand comprehensively the persistence of media piracy in the Philippines and Vietnam. Furthermore, it describes the book’s main objectives as well as the data source and research method which are used in the two subsequent sociological studies that became the basis of this book. Finally, it defines some major terms on media piracy which are often cited in the text and provides a roadmap for the book, describing briefly the content of each chapter and how the chapters are interconnected with one another to achieve the book’s overall purpose.

AFK - an acronym for “away of keyboard” widely used online - is an anthology of texts written for catalogues and exhibition brochures along the last five years, featuring twelve texts about eleven artists and an artist duo: Rosa Menkman, Jon Rafman, Gazira Babeli, Martin Kohout, Maurizio Cattelan, Enrico Boccioletti, Constant Dullaart, Jill Magid, Aram Bartholl, Emilie Brout & Maxime Marion, Evan Roth and Addie Wagenknecht. In different ways, these artists experienced the impact of digital means of production and dissemination, they experimented with them, they thought about them, and all this is reflected in their work. As Peter Sunde, the co-founder of the Pirate Bay, they think the internet is real, and they spend a lot of time in this real space of life, communication, love, hate, surveillance, sharing, and copying. Most of the works discussed here are made to be experienced in a brick and mortar space, away of keyboard; but reflect the current way of living, communicating, loving, hating, spying, sharing, copying, on and away of keyboard.

Domenico Quaranta, AFK. Texts on Artists 2011 - 2016, Link Editions, December 2016. Black and white paperback, 180 pages, English, ISBN 9781326892920

This article argues that despite their inherent illegality, forms of media piracy are an essential part of the
memory of Bombay cinema. While Bombay cinema’s history is replete with its encounter with myriad
pirate forms—cheaply published film dialogs and lyrics, locally produced posters, illegal music tapes,
video cassettes, VCDs and DVDs—the activity of viewing, sharing, and storing cinematic objects sees
a new order of proliferation online, leading to the creation of a network of private and indeed pirate
archives of cinema.
Built largely of illegal material (downloaded, ripped, and copied) and the “poor image” (Steyerl,
2009), the pirate archive is at odds with the official state archive of cinema that is all too aware of its
role in preserving the “heritage of Indian cinema.” The pirate archive unpacks the carefully constructed
and preserved hierarchy of “meaningful cinema” by including more derided forms like porn and “trash,”
bringing them into the fold of history. I argue that its illicit, often incomplete, sometimes erroneous and
ephemeral material then poses a challenge to the state archive’s performance of stability and its attempt
to control cinematic history.

Swedish filesharing site The Pirate Bay (www.piratebay.se) has continued to operate despite being convicted of facilitating massive amounts of copyright infringement, acting as a defiant statement about the resilient nature of piracy. Now that this weakness in the business model of the copyright industries has been exposed, calls for a reform in copyright law have amplified, and many of the advocates of filesharing technologies look to a possible form of digital marxism in which we no longer have to pay to enjoy our music. This work examines the discourse behind The Pirate Bay and illegal music filesharing, acting as a criticism of Marxist subtexts in pro-filesharing literature by using a variety of studies from sociological, legal, cultural and media backgrounds to show how a world of free music would not diminish the capitalist model behind music production, even if copyright law is to be radically revised or abolished. In file sharing literature, Marxist concepts of relations of production, base and superstructure have regularly been utilized to explain how copyright law allows music to be commodified and sold contrary the needs of listeners, though this dissertation will argue that these concepts are ineffective in explaining why many filesharing advocates still hold the belief that music-making should somehow remain a paid occupation.