Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Conceptions of Copyright in a Digital Context. A Comparison between French and American File-sharers

Larsson, Stefan LU (2014) In Lexis - E-Journal in English Lexicology p.89-102
Abstract
What type of metaphors do file-sharers employ to conceptualise copyright in a digital society? How do they understand property and intellectual property in this context? How do they conceive the file-sharing community and how does this ‘online piracy’ connect or not connect to law, social norms, copyright enforcement, and computational traceability? Given the historical variations in the inherent emphasis on ownership and attribution in copyright law within an American vis-à-vis a French continental context, are there, for example, noticeable differences between the American and the French respondents? By drawing heavily from conceptual metaphor theory, this article analyses findings from a large-scale survey (20,000 respondents) on online... (More)
What type of metaphors do file-sharers employ to conceptualise copyright in a digital society? How do they understand property and intellectual property in this context? How do they conceive the file-sharing community and how does this ‘online piracy’ connect or not connect to law, social norms, copyright enforcement, and computational traceability? Given the historical variations in the inherent emphasis on ownership and attribution in copyright law within an American vis-à-vis a French continental context, are there, for example, noticeable differences between the American and the French respondents? By drawing heavily from conceptual metaphor theory, this article analyses findings from a large-scale survey (20,000 respondents) on online file-sharing. The results indicate that copyright is not seen as ‘property’ by the respondents at all, that a majority of the US and French file-sharers would prefer to be more anonymous online in order to avoid legal enforcement, and that almost one out of five already uses such tools. The results indicate that there is a difference in how the American and the French file- sharers understand or conceptualise the future of file-sharing and its relationship to copyright and that the French file-sharers focus more on the actual artists, while the American file-sharers focus more on the role of the industry and the government. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
the Pirate Bay, file-sharing, conceptual metaphor, copyright, intellectual property
in
Lexis - E-Journal in English Lexicology
issue
8
pages
89 - 102
publisher
Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques
ISSN
1951-6215
project
Legal Challenges in a Digital Context
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7304f438-114b-4d8e-97ba-8082129c1f02 (old id 4016746)
alternative location
http://lexis.univ-lyon3.fr/spip.php?article202
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:53:04
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:20:57
@article{7304f438-114b-4d8e-97ba-8082129c1f02,
  abstract     = {{What type of metaphors do file-sharers employ to conceptualise copyright in a digital society? How do they understand property and intellectual property in this context? How do they conceive the file-sharing community and how does this ‘online piracy’ connect or not connect to law, social norms, copyright enforcement, and computational traceability? Given the historical variations in the inherent emphasis on ownership and attribution in copyright law within an American vis-à-vis a French continental context, are there, for example, noticeable differences between the American and the French respondents? By drawing heavily from conceptual metaphor theory, this article analyses findings from a large-scale survey (20,000 respondents) on online file-sharing. The results indicate that copyright is not seen as ‘property’ by the respondents at all, that a majority of the US and French file-sharers would prefer to be more anonymous online in order to avoid legal enforcement, and that almost one out of five already uses such tools. The results indicate that there is a difference in how the American and the French file- sharers understand or conceptualise the future of file-sharing and its relationship to copyright and that the French file-sharers focus more on the actual artists, while the American file-sharers focus more on the role of the industry and the government.}},
  author       = {{Larsson, Stefan}},
  issn         = {{1951-6215}},
  keywords     = {{the Pirate Bay; file-sharing; conceptual metaphor; copyright; intellectual property}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{89--102}},
  publisher    = {{Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques}},
  series       = {{Lexis - E-Journal in English Lexicology}},
  title        = {{Conceptions of Copyright in a Digital Context. A Comparison between French and American File-sharers}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/4220330/4246875.pdf}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}