“Teenage kicks or virtual villainy?” what Yar can tell us about pirate scholarly communication – David R Jenkins

lterrat's bookmarks 2017-01-17

Summary:

"Yar describes what many already know to be true – that unauthorised sharing of copyrighted material has been taking place for many years, meaning that PSC is not innovative in this respect. He evidences his claim by giving a history of music piracy both before and during the Internet age, which is consistent with other histories of piracy (e.g by Espinosa or Lessig).

Yar argues that piracy is not clearly a criminal activity and that it has been presented to society as a crime by those who profit from effective implementation of copyright. I found this particularly interesting as I had not previously thought about the origins of the term ‘piracy ‘ or about crime as a social construct. He also describes how pirates challenge this narrative and turn authorities’ claims regarding the immorality back on them, both of which are seen in PSC. Swartz, for example, recognises that academic publishers legally hold copyright to the academic literature they publish but contests that, by restricting access to this literature, their actions are immoral. He positions the literature as an important scientific and cultural resource that should be freely accessible by all. Indeed he asserts that those who have legal access to this literature have a moral duty to share it and questions the labeling of this sharing as piracy"

Link:

https://davidrjenkins.wordpress.com/2017/01/16/teenage-kicks-or-virtual-villainy-what-yar-can-tell-us-about-pirate-scholarly-communication/

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » lterrat's bookmarks

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Date tagged:

01/17/2017, 13:22

Date published:

01/17/2017, 08:22