Culture and capital decoupled : exploring the dynamics of peer-to-peer file sharing and copyright violation

Cooper, Amrik

Culture and capital decoupled : exploring the dynamics of peer-to-peer file sharing and copyright violation

Master Thesis

2010

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Sociology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

In this thesis the significance of casual copyright violation as enabled by the infrastructural fluidity of the internet is discussed (in particular, its most contemporary form, peer-to-peer file sharing). The aim of this discussion is to explore and promote a better understand of casual copyright violation, beyond the narrower conceptions challenged herein. The positions of progressive intellectual property advocates and of the intellectual property industry are presented, neither of whose analysis appears to rise above idealism or moralising. A triangulated research design was implemented, incorporating one-on-one qualitative interviews, a focus group and a survey of a student file-sharing population. I conclude that peer-to-peer file sharing is less significant as an individual choice than it is as a structural feature of the digital age.

Description

Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-59).

Keywords

Sociology

Reference:

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Masters

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