ABSTRACT
Cultural practices with new media are paralleled by a rise of ‘digital piracy’.
While industries and national/international regulation seek to prevent or punish these practices, the global network of users that share content online has already established itself as an effective distribution system, a shadow economy in which users become distributors.
In this chapter, we will discuss ‘digital piracy’ as a complex concept that varies according to who proposes the definition. To describe and analyse this phenomenon, this chapter will depict the online movie and TV distribution economy mapping actors involved: legal, illegal or in the shadows of the formal economy. It will discuss how global regulation and local policies intend to shape digital culture, far deepening the gap between the law and everyday (media) practices. By describing the case of Argentina, it aims to show how the global and the local get entangled in the clash between IP regulation and local cultural practices. The analysis aims to contribute to the discussion about media distribution, global regulations and local structures of participation.
