[Air-l] Social impacts of digital "piracy"

[Tamara Paradis]

Hello

(This is my first time posting to the list, so I guess I'm officially
"de-cloaking"!)

As part of a soci/anth field research course I'm taking at Concordia
University, I'm doing a small-scale research project on digital
appropriation tactics among young Canadian males, a practice that is
often called "piracy". However, I don't use that term, because it seems
laden with negative sterotypes and pre-conceptions.

I'm particularly interested in how these youth integrate their music
downloading/ripping, software "softlifting", image/text/slogan/logo
lifting practices, etc. into their identity, sense of agency, power
relations with society and attendance of social norms. These are areas
of research and inquiry on this topic that don't seem to have much done
on them yet, which is largely why I chose this topic over other digital
culture research possibilities.

As part of the research project, I am expected to do an analysis and
report on at least 6 academic journal articles from peer-reviewed
publications. So far, though, there doesn't seem to be anything written
in the soci/anth/psych/cul.studies literature about the identity and
social/personal aspects of these practices. All hits to date have
revolved around authorship, financial/legal/civil impacts and the like. 

Thus, I'm putting out the call to all of you -- are you aware of any
academic-focused articles written about this topic, particularly with
same focus as my own? Do you know of anyone who has done qual./quan.
Research on the topic? Have you perhaps presented something yourself at
a conference that isn't yet published? If you'd be willing to share your
research/article or point me to a resource or individual, I would be
very grateful. 

While I'd also appreciate referrals to certain books or websites, my
list of these resources is fairly long already. It is primarily academic
journal articles, scholarly conference proceedings and scholarly-focused
articles/research that I now require. 

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Tamara

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     Tamara Paradis              tparadis at canada.com