Sharing: Crime Against Capitalism

237 Pages·2017·1.69 MB·English

by  Matthew David

Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
Sharing: Crime Against Capitalism?
Alternative Business Models or Alternatives to Business?
The Economics of Sharing and of Capitalism
The Structure of the Book
What Sharing? And (more to the point) What is Sharing?
2 Libraries and the Digital World
Introduction
Information: Culture or Capital
Literacy, Education and Libraries
Digital Revolutions One and Two
Internet and Access
Digital Commons: The Anarchist in the Library
Orphan Works: The Capitalist in the Archive
Libraries as Records of Ownership and/or the Common Heritage of
Humanity
Plagiarism vs. Piracy
From Scarcity to Authority
Conclusions: Free Culture or Fee Culture
3 Peer-to-Peer Music Sharing Online
Introduction
From CDs to Napster: The Rise of Peer-to-Peer
From Napster to Now
The Myth of The Recording Artist (Then and Now)
The ‘Romantic’ Myth of the Recording Artist
Why Sign?
Why Not Sign?
The Rise of Live
Adaptive (iTunes and Spotify) vs. Alternative (Sharingand Selling-
Based) Business Models
Conclusions: Reversing the Menu and the Meal
4 Livestreaming and Television Rights Management
Introduction
The First Digital Revolution in Television: Pay-to-View Enclosure
The Second Digital Revolution: Free-Sharing Livestreams
Justin.TV, First Row Sports and Wiziwig: Network Enterprises and their
Users
Sky’s the Limit? The Limits of Power and Counterpower
Conclusions: Power and Counterpower in Digital Networks
5 Open-Source Software and Proprietary Software
Introduction
The Spirit of the Information Age: Hackers, Rebel Code and Play
Struggle
Digital Rights Management
Peer-to-Peer Software
Non-Profit Organizations in the Information Economy
Computer Games
Platforms, Programmes and the Limits of Property
Conclusions: Sharing, the Gift Economy, Play Struggle and Creativity
6 Publishing: Academic, Journalistic and Trade
Introduction
Academic Publishing
Journalistic Publishing: The Editorial Nexus and Beyond?
Trade Publishing: Capitalist Concentration
The Long Tail and the Real Lives of Authors
Is First Mover Advantage Enough?
Conclusions: Recognition, Valuation and Innovation
7 Genes, Genetically Modified Organisms, Patents and Agribusiness
Introduction
‘The Genetic Commons’: Human and Non-Human Nature
Culture: Heritage and Public Sphere
Discovery and Invention: On Patents and the Public Domain
Science as Method and Colonial Appropriation
‘Reinventing’ ‘Nature’: Undoing the Discovery/Intention Distinction via
Genetically Modified Organisms
Patenting Human Gene Lines
Terminator Genes and Food Security
Alternatives and Critiques
The Common Heritage of Humanity: Seeds, Plants and Farmers’ Rights
Traditional Knowledge Banks
Biopiracy against Whom?
The Human Genome Project
Public Knowledge? deCode Genetics, the Public as Private and Vice
Versa
The Eureka Myth
Genetics and the Law
Conclusions: Common Heritage and Sharing Knowledge Production
8 Pharmaceutical Patents and Generic Drugs
Introduction
Ebola
AZT: A History of Control
Bold Claims
Who Pays and What Gets Bought?
Patent and Medical Innovation
One Way Street: The Case of Anthrax and National Security
Generic Medicines
Faking Fakes: The Attempt to Present Generics as Counterfeits
HIV in South Africa, Brazil and Elsewhere
Conclusions: Sharing Knowledge and Improving Human Health
9 Conclusions: Sharing – Crime against Capitalism
Introduction
The Efficiency of Sharing
The Efficacy of Sharing: Fostering Quality and Access
The Incentive Structures of Sharing
Sharing’s Challenge to the Tragedy of the Anti-Commons
Sharing and the Triumph of the Commons?
Global Network Capitalism
Power and Counterpower in the Global Network Society
Only a Return – to Advertiser Funding?
The Rise of ‘Live’: Unmediated Mediation
The Criminalization or the Colonization of Free-Sharing?
A Gift Economy?
Sharing: A Crime Against Capitalism
References
Index
End User License Agreement
To Hilda Valerie (Val) David
1939–2016
Sharing
Crime against Capitalism
Matthew David
polity
Copyright © Matthew David 2017
The right of Matthew David to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with
the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2017 by Polity Press
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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK
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without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1326-0
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