Jenkins’
discussion of the Potter Wars throws interesting light on the way in which
anxieties and debates around media consumption proliferate when confronted with
the “speed” of the Internet. His discussion of attempts at corporate regulation
of media franchises seems to correlate a lot with other contemporary practices
of consumption that teeter on the edge of legality.
Although Jenkins’ primary interest is to look at the idea of
an “empowered consumer,” his model of convergence might actually be useful to
think about the idea of “sharing.” In a way, the kind of fan fiction that
Jenkins describes is also a way of sharing with a particular community of
consumers. Although this kind of sharing involves actual creative labor on the
part of the consumer/creator what seems to be at stake in corporate discomfort
with such creation is the creation of alternate economies that destabilize the
profit-motivated logic of the franchise.
But perhaps this can also provide a way to think about online
file-sharing. If one is to take the sub-title of Jenkins’ book seriously, the
legal witch-hunts conducted by the RIAA and the MPAA provide an excellent
example to contemplate the “collision” of media forms in an environment marked by the emergence of the possibilities of digital distribution. Online file sharing
is after all, about communities and participation.
This video featuring Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate
Bay is revealing in this context. Sunde talks about “actual” activism involving
media cultures including public protests demanding copying and filesharing
rights and the establishment of Piratbyrån (the Pirate Party), a pro-filesharing
and anti-IPR group that at one point, planned running for general elections. Other modalities of convergence culture maybe?
Here's the the Sunde video:
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