PIRACY CULTURES: How a Growing Portion of the Global Population is Building Media Relationships Through Alternate Channels of Obtaining Content

Piracy CulturesEditorial Introduction

MANUEL CASTELLS

1

University of Southern California

GUSTAVO CARDOSO

Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE-IUL)

What are "Piracy Cultures"? Usually, we look at media consumption starting from a media industry definition. We look at TV, radio, newspapers, games, Internet, and media content in general, all departing from the idea that the access to such content is made available through the payment of a license fee or subscription, or simply because it’s either paid or available for free (being supported by advertisements or under a "freemium" business model). That is, we look at content and the way people interact with it within a given system of thought that sees content and its distribution channels as the product of relationships between media companies, organizations, and individuals—effectively, a commercial relationship of a contractual kind, with accordant rights and obligations.

But what if, for a moment, we turned our attention to the empirical evidence of media consumption practice, not just in Asia, Africa, and South America, but also all over Europe and North America? All over the world, we are witnessing a growing number of people building media relationships outside those institutionalized sets of rules.

We do not intend to discuss whether we are dealing with legal or illegal practices; our launching point for this analysis is that, when a very significant proportion of the population is building its mediation through alternative channels of obtaining content, such behavior should be studied in order to deepen our knowledge of media cultures. Because we need a title to characterize those cultures in all their diversity—but at the same time, in their commonplaceness—we propose to call it "Piracy Cultures."