Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Professionalization, Gender and Anonymity in the Global File Sharing Community

Svensson, Måns LU ; Larsson, Stefan LU and De Kaminski, Marcin LU (2013) p.1-8
Abstract
This article presents the analysis of a large survey on file-sharing that was conducted in April 2011 with over 75,000 respondents from all over the world. The study, also known as The Research Bay, due to that it was conducted in collaboration with the infamous BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, by the Cybernorms research group. The aim of the online study of The Pirate Bay community has been to describe a file sharing community from within and thereby to shed light on the underlying demographics and social structures of the phenomenon that has emerged as one of the greatest challenges to IP law ever.



The results indicate that this community of mainly bitTorrentfile-sharers to a large extent is a male community (93.8 % of... (More)
This article presents the analysis of a large survey on file-sharing that was conducted in April 2011 with over 75,000 respondents from all over the world. The study, also known as The Research Bay, due to that it was conducted in collaboration with the infamous BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, by the Cybernorms research group. The aim of the online study of The Pirate Bay community has been to describe a file sharing community from within and thereby to shed light on the underlying demographics and social structures of the phenomenon that has emerged as one of the greatest challenges to IP law ever.



The results indicate that this community of mainly bitTorrentfile-sharers to a large extent is a male community (93.8 % of the respondents were male) of a younger generation (77.3 percent were younger than 30 years of age). These results, in combination with the fact that the relatively low share of uploaders are more inclined to seek protection from identification via encrypted means than the rest and the fact that offline sharing is common, is an indication of that the file sharing community is differentiated within. This is in the article discussed in terms of a professionalization or specialization existing in the file-sharing community, that includes different roles in an “eco system” of sharing files and consuming media. This means that those informants we have found via the Pirate Bay website may represent a link in a bigger chain, as a technology competent and vital link for a larger structure of which BitTorrent plays an important, but not all-encompassing, part. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
File-sharing, Copyright, Intellectual Property, The Pirate Bay, Online piracy
host publication
Piracy Effect
editor
Braga, Roberto and Caruso, Giovanni
pages
1 - 8
publisher
Mimesis Edizioni
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
This article, and book, is released in Italian too.
id
3e1346fa-31bb-42b2-9e37-2d2859e577e7 (old id 3615165)
alternative location
http://www.cinergie.it/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/1-Svensson-et-al_Professionalization-Gender-and-Anonymity-in-the-Global-File-Sharing-Community_cinergie.pdf
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:10:58
date last changed
2022-10-10 07:56:40
@inbook{3e1346fa-31bb-42b2-9e37-2d2859e577e7,
  abstract     = {{This article presents the analysis of a large survey on file-sharing that was conducted in April 2011 with over 75,000 respondents from all over the world. The study, also known as The Research Bay, due to that it was conducted in collaboration with the infamous BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, by the Cybernorms research group. The aim of the online study of The Pirate Bay community has been to describe a file sharing community from within and thereby to shed light on the underlying demographics and social structures of the phenomenon that has emerged as one of the greatest challenges to IP law ever.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The results indicate that this community of mainly bitTorrentfile-sharers to a large extent is a male community (93.8 % of the respondents were male) of a younger generation (77.3 percent were younger than 30 years of age). These results, in combination with the fact that the relatively low share of uploaders are more inclined to seek protection from identification via encrypted means than the rest and the fact that offline sharing is common, is an indication of that the file sharing community is differentiated within. This is in the article discussed in terms of a professionalization or specialization existing in the file-sharing community, that includes different roles in an “eco system” of sharing files and consuming media. This means that those informants we have found via the Pirate Bay website may represent a link in a bigger chain, as a technology competent and vital link for a larger structure of which BitTorrent plays an important, but not all-encompassing, part.}},
  author       = {{Svensson, Måns and Larsson, Stefan and De Kaminski, Marcin}},
  booktitle    = {{Piracy Effect}},
  editor       = {{Braga, Roberto and Caruso, Giovanni}},
  keywords     = {{File-sharing; Copyright; Intellectual Property; The Pirate Bay; Online piracy}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--8}},
  publisher    = {{Mimesis Edizioni}},
  title        = {{Professionalization, Gender and Anonymity in the Global File Sharing Community}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/5713538/3615249.pdf}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}