TY - JOUR
T1 - Music for nothing or, I want my MP3
T2 - The regulation and recirculation of affect
AU - Rodman, Gilbert B.
AU - Vanderdonckt, Cheyanne
PY - 2006/3
Y1 - 2006/3
N2 - With the public discourse around filesharing veering towards punitive extremes, our aim in this essay is to reframe the issue in two ways. First, we argue that the filesharing debates are 'too economic', insofar as they reduce a multi-faceted phenomenon to a single issue: financial loss resulting from the theft of intellectual property. Lost in such arguments is the fact that music routinely circulates through the culture in myriad ways that have little (if anything) to do with commerce and capitalism, and everything to do with affect and affiliation. Second, the filesharing debates are simultaneously 'not economic enough', insofar as they evade the financial complexities of the music business in favor of an overly simplistic equation: 'downloaded music' leads directly to 'lost sales revenues'. A more robust analysis of the music industry's standard economic practices, however, undercuts both its economic claims about the negative effects of filesharing on sales and its moral claims to be defending helpless musicians from downloading 'thieves'.
AB - With the public discourse around filesharing veering towards punitive extremes, our aim in this essay is to reframe the issue in two ways. First, we argue that the filesharing debates are 'too economic', insofar as they reduce a multi-faceted phenomenon to a single issue: financial loss resulting from the theft of intellectual property. Lost in such arguments is the fact that music routinely circulates through the culture in myriad ways that have little (if anything) to do with commerce and capitalism, and everything to do with affect and affiliation. Second, the filesharing debates are simultaneously 'not economic enough', insofar as they evade the financial complexities of the music business in favor of an overly simplistic equation: 'downloaded music' leads directly to 'lost sales revenues'. A more robust analysis of the music industry's standard economic practices, however, undercuts both its economic claims about the negative effects of filesharing on sales and its moral claims to be defending helpless musicians from downloading 'thieves'.
KW - Affect
KW - Copyright
KW - Filesharing
KW - Intellectual property
KW - Mp3s
KW - Music
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33645125337&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09502380500495734
DO - 10.1080/09502380500495734
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33645125337
SN - 0950-2386
VL - 20
SP - 245
EP - 261
JO - Cultural Studies
JF - Cultural Studies
IS - 2-3
ER -