This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (3) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Yar, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

The global ‘epidemic’ of movie ‘piracy’: crime-wave or social construction?

University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, M.Yar{at}kent.ac.uk

The growth of film ‘piracy’ has become an increasingly high-profile issue. Business groups, national governments, international organizations and law enforcement agencies have claimed that ‘piracy’ has undergone near-exponential growth, doing untold damage to the movie industry. This article attempts to critically examine this apparent ‘epidemic’. Two contrasting types of explanation are explored. The first treats the rise in film ‘piracy’ as the real effect of a range of social, economic and technological changes. However, the second perspective takes a more critical stance towards ‘official’ discourse, and suggests that the ‘epidemic’ in fact ought to be seen as the product of shifting legal regimes, lobbying activities, rhetorical manoeuvres, criminal justice agendas, and ‘interested’ or ‘partial’ processes of statistical inference. I suggest that this latter reading of ‘piracy’ as a ‘social construction’ is a necessary and valuable counter to an industry-led discourse that tends to obscure rather than illuminate the complex array of processes at work.

Key Words: copyright • crime statistics • globalization • intellectual property • internet crime

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?