Online File Sharing Innovations in Media Consumption [Hardcover]

It is apparent that file sharing on the Internet has become an emerging norm of media consumptionespecially among young people. This book provides a critical perspective on this phenomenon, exploring issues related to file sharing, downloading, peer-to-peer networks, piracy, and (not least) policy issues regarding these practices. Andersson Schwartz critically engages with the justificatory discourses of the actual file-sharers, taking Sweden as a geographic focus. By focusing on the example of Swedenhome to both The Pirate Bay and Spotifyhe provides a unique insight into a mentality that drives both innovation and deviance and accommodates sharing in both its unadulterated and its compliant, business-friendly forms.

1. Outlining the Conflict: Observations and Potentials  2. Personal Justifications: Learning from the File-Sharers while Criticizing Them  3. Historical Foundations: The Nested Historiography of P2P-Based File-Sharing  4. Technical Limitations: The Stupid Net  How Protocols Instigate Behaviors and Configurations Online  5. Geographical Locations: The Pirate Bay and Sweden as a Case Study  6. Philosophical Implications: Mass Sharing as an Ubiquitous Backdrop to Everyday Life  7. Political Potentials: Occasional Activism Generating Strategic Sovereigns

Jonas Andersson Schwarz is a Lecturer in the Department of Culture and Communication at S?dert?rn University, Sweden.