Phd seminar oct2012
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This document summarizes the key points from Dr. Jenine Beekhuyzen's doctoral research on unauthorized file sharing communities online. She conducted an ethnographic study of an underground file sharing community called "Roswell" over 120 days, including interviews and covert observation. Her findings showed that the community had strong social norms for participation and contributed content in a meritocratic way. She found that members' motivations for file sharing included issues of cost, convenience, and choice compared to legitimate options. Her research provided insights into these underground communities and implications for the design of legitimate online music systems.
![Social Implications
Misuse of the concept of “piracy” to describe all who engage in
file sharing as criminals does disservice to those who are shapers
of the digital revolution - and is often inaccurate according to the
common meaning of the concept - not well defined
Understand practices within a subculture that is regarded as
deviant from the mainstream and illegal “moral panic”"[a]
condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to
become defined as a threat to societal values and
interests” (Cohen, 1973: 9)
Contributes to the discussion and policy formulation on file
sharing](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/phdseminaroct2012-121015092916-phpapp02/85/Phd-seminar-oct2012-14-320.jpg)
Phd seminar oct2012
- 1. Tales from the underground: Exploring unauthorised file sharing communities on the Internet Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems Griffith University - Brisbane, Australia
- 2. My Doctorate Doctoral study completed in 2010 (2006-2009) in the School of ICT, Science, Engineering, Environment & Technology Faculty Title: A Critical Ethnography of an Online File Sharing Community: An Actor-Network Theory Perspective of Controversies in the Digital Music World Participant in the Doctoral Consortium at QUALIT 2006 - Brisbane, Australia Participant in the Doctoral Consortium at ICIS 2008 - Paris, France Title: Digital Rights Management and the Online Music Experience Participant in the Junior Faculty Consortium at ICIS 2010 - St. Louis, USA
- 3. Graduation!
- 4. Publications Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. and Nielsen, S. (2012) Insights from the Underground: Using ANT to Understand Practices and Motivations for File Sharing in Online Communities, European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona, Spain, 11-13 June - Winner of the Claudio Ciborra award for Innovation in Research Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. and Nielsen, S. (2012) The High Seas (C’s) of piracy in Information Systems: Cost, convenience and choice, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Geelong, Australia, 3-5 December Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. & Nielsen, S. (2011) Underground Online Music Communities: Exploring Rules for Membership, Online Information Review, Vol. 35 Issue: 5, pp.699 - 715 Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. & Nielsen, S.(2010) Collaboration in Online Communities: Reconceptualising the Complex Problem of Unauthorised Music File Sharing, ACIS, Brisbane, Australia 1-3 December Beekhuyzen, J., Nielsen, S. & von Hellens, L. (2010) The NVivo Looking Glass: Seeing the Data Through the Analysis, QualIT Conference - Qualitative Research in IT & IT in Qualitative Research, Brisbane, Australia 29-30 November Beekhuyzen, J. & von Hellens, L. (2009) Reciprocity and Sharing in an Underground File Sharing Community, 20th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Melbourne, Australia, Monash University, 2-4 December Beekhuyzen, J. & von Hellens, L. (2008) How does Technology Influence Online Music Access and Use? A Taxonomy of Empirical Studies, 19th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Christchurch, New Zealand, 3-5 December. Beekhuyzen, J. (2007) Putting the pieces of the puzzle together: Using NVivo for a literature review, QualIT2007 - Qualitative Research in IT:, Wellington, New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington, 19-20 November
- 5. Background to PhD Continuation of Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre project (2004/2005) into media use and digital technologies that aims to develop guidelines for the user-centred design of new digital rights management systems (DRMs). A continuum from downloading to purchase
- 6. Publications Singh, S., Jackson, M., Waycott, J. & Beekhuyzen, J. (2006) Downloading vs Purchase: Music industry vs consumers, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin / Hiedleberg (reprinted from the First International Conference on Digital Rights Management 2005) Waycott, J., Jackson, M., Singh, S. (2005) Digital Rights Management and consumers’ use of music: An activity theory perspective, Proceedings of QualIT 2005, Brisbane, Australia, 25-27 November Jackson, M., Singh, S., Waycott, J. & Beekhuyzen, J. (2005) DRMs, Fair Use and Users’ Experience of Sharing Music, DRM 2005 - Fifth ACM Workshop on Digital Rights Management, Virginia, US, 7 Nov 2005 Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L., Morley, M, and Nielsen, S.H. (2004) Searching for a methodology for Smart Internet Technology Development, Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Information Systems Development, Melbourne, Australia, August 25-27
- 7. My Doctoral Studies Explore motivations for file sharing on the Internet - those that sometimes buy and sometimes file share - see Lessig 2004 Reconceptualise file sharing “piracy” and participants/users Focus on music downloading as a cultural activity Downloading, uploading, sharing in online social spaces that challenge authority - in general, and in the context of online communities (Roswell) Unauthorised? Authorised? Difficulties in researching... Latest developments in Portugal and growing trend to distribute authorised music releases by musicians (and other artists) - 124,191,862 legal downloads in first 6 months - 31% of all BitTorrent
- 8. Conceptualising Music Distribution Conceptualisation of music distribution systems
- 9. Design/Methodology/Approach Actor-network theory (Callon, Latour & Rip, 1986) Critical approach (Habermas, 1984, Ngwenyama and Lee, 1997, Klecun, 2004, Stahl 2008) - roots in IS research in the Marxist view of society as a series of class struggles (Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991). Ethnographic methodology (Thomas, 1993) - systems, structure, technology and rules of unauthorised (illegal?) file sharing Empirical: in-depth interviews with 16 file sharers, 6 musicians & 8 music recording industry experts, focus groups, covert observations over 120 days of a surreptitious online community - Roswell (Pseudonym) Roswell - 1200+ members (20 000+) - strong rules for active participation - strongly ordered and not adhoc
- 10. Findings Internet has robust architectures for participation - file sharing communities that manifest social interaction create affordances for an ever-expanding number of people to share their experiences (and their content) Underground file sharing communities are sophisticated systems for organising music within subcultures on the Internet Granted membership is meritocratic Members are encouraged to develop habits of active participation and contribution to the community (sharing or uploading new content) Community has strong conventions for participating/contributing e.g. naming and ripping new uploads, obfuscating personal identities
- 11. Findings Cost - physical mediums (CDs) too expensive, compared to digital music ($1.69-$2.19/track from iTunes). Retail price of a digital single track is equal to the comparable cost of a track on a CD, however the two are not commensurable - no costs for packaging, few costs for distribution and storage of the digital artifact. Bagchi et al. (2006) argue individuals may feel that the injustices inflicted by the manufacturers justify piracy Convenience - easier to use than online stores like iTunes (Alderman 2001) - less barriers to the music transaction, such as the need for a credit card. Interoperability is important, and technical competence influences the choice of unauthorised file sharing system (or even paid music system). Smith and Telang (2009) suggest that giving away content in one channel can stimulate sales in other channels. Gran & Molde (2010) - downloaders are 10 times more likely to purchase Choice – frustrated that the largest online music store (iTunes) is limited - no Beatles & AC/DC etc. - “long tail” (Anderson, 2006), whereas sources that provide access to unauthorised content enable unlimited access to almost any digitally recorded music, often at a very high quality. If a legitimate source is not available to purchase, they look for other sources. !
- 12. Findings Interesting... New content is unpredictable and dynamic - exists temporarily Members contributing to a collective consciousness while developing their own culture and language Motivated by appeal of unpredictability (similar to radio? social media?), ability to collaborate with peers Evaluate value through consideration of cost, convenience and choice Many file share without malicious motivations, they do it simply because they can (and because they enjoy it :))
- 13. Practical Implications Too often, we impute an automatic link between illegal behaviors and ethics and forget that the criminalization of ‘deviant acts’ transforms and reduces broader normative meanings to legal ones. Once a category of behaviors has become defined by statute as sanctionable, the behaviors so-defined assume a new set of meanings. These may obscure the alternative nuanced images that guide those who engage in such behaviors, those who enforce the laws and norms that prohibit” (Thomas, 2005). Insights into the ‘black box’ of file sharing and underlying ideologies Understanding of sophisticated underground file sharing communities assists further development of legitimate online music systems to appeal to the large number of individuals involved in music file sharing communities and file sharing in general Ethical considerations and challenges of studying illegal behaviour - of interest to the IS community
- 14. Social Implications Misuse of the concept of “piracy” to describe all who engage in file sharing as criminals does disservice to those who are shapers of the digital revolution - and is often inaccurate according to the common meaning of the concept - not well defined Understand practices within a subculture that is regarded as deviant from the mainstream and illegal “moral panic”"[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests” (Cohen, 1973: 9) Contributes to the discussion and policy formulation on file sharing
- 15. Contributions Develop theory for studying illegal behaviour in IS - IS moving beyond organisational boundaries - covert observations Contradicts community literature? Only known ethnography investigating underground music file sharing communities using a qualitative interpretive/critical approach Underground communities have not been systematically studied previously Addresses lack of research literature Novel in applying ANT to a context not previously applied
- 16. Contact Thank you! e: jenine@griffith.edu.au w: www.iinet.net.au/~beek t: @jeninebeek b: diaryofatechgirl.wordpress.com
Editor's Notes
- #2: \n
- #3: do I have time for story about going to Paris with 5 days notice?\n\n\n
- #4: \n
- #5: conversation with Marco de Marco at ECIS 2012 - CC was risk taking and innovative in his research - pushing the limits - flattering to win award\nexplain system in Australia - almost all publish by dissertation not by publication - we publish mostly at the end of our doctorate, not during - playing a different game (Baskerville ICIS2008)\n\nlink to ECIS paper\n
- #6: we focused on music - with introduction of iTunes and other music services e.g. Bigpond Music in Australia\nsample vs substitution\n\nlink to paper downloading vs purchase\n
- #7: 1 - developed model of continuum from downloading to purchase\n2 - application of activity theory to better understand these approaches to accessing music online\n3 - legal aspects of music downloading (file sharing)\n4 - methodology to study music access and use - scenarios and personas from UCD\n\n
- #8: Link to Lessig free culture\n\npiracy - always bad, or is it?\nLessig (2004) argues that people are motivated to use unuathorised file sharing networks for four primary reasons: \n•As substitutes for purchasing content: users who download instead of purchasing (A). \n•To sample music before purchasing it: sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased (B). \n•To get access to copyrighted content that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the transaction costs off the Net are too high (C)\n•To get access to content that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away (D). \nLaws to copyright change as Mickey Mouse gets older...85 yrs.\n\nWith some musicians now authorising the release of their music solely as a BitTorrent download (and not for commercial sale), it is possible to infer that this method of distribution by musicians will increase in the future. A recent ruling in Portugal that unauthorised file sharing for personal use is legal further evidences the need for this reconceptualisation of file sharing.\n\n
- #9: piracy - always bad, or is it?\nLessig (2004) argues that people are motivated to use unuathorised file sharing networks for four primary reasons: \n•As substitutes for purchasing content: users who download instead of purchasing (A). \n•To sample music before purchasing it: sharing could increase the quantity of music purchased (B). \n•To get access to copyrighted content that is no longer sold or that they would not have purchased because the transaction costs off the Net are too high (C)\n•To get access to content that is not copyrighted or that the copyright owner wants to give away (D). \nLaws to copyright change as Mickey Mouse gets older...85 yrs.\n\nWith some musicians now authorising the release of their music solely as a BitTorrent download (and not for commercial sale), it is possible to infer that this method of distribution by musicians will increase in the future. A recent ruling in Portugal that unauthorised file sharing for personal use is legal further evidences the need for this reconceptualisation of file sharing.\n\n
- #10: \n
- #11: \n
- #12: e.g. Liisa and the Finnish Eurovision winner :)\n\ntriplej interview\n
- #13: mention guy who downloaded entire archive of disney and didnt watch it - because they can\n
- #14: Ethics - the Australian process\nlink to paper by Sag\n
- #15: link to article about portugal and file sharing bittorrent?\n
- #16: e.g. Liisa and the Finnish Eurovision winner :)\n
- #17: \n