Piracy Cultures| Audiovisual Piracy, Informal Economy, and Cultural Globalization

Abstract

This article puts into perspective the results of a collective research project carried out in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Korea, Colombia, Bulgaria, and Russia. It analyzes the nature of the more or less informal networks through which pirated audiovisual products circulate, the modes through which they are appropriated, and the changes occurring with the rise of Internet. Placing piracy in the context of international power relations, this article studies the transnational pressures exerted, in the field of copyright, on national authorities, as well as the way the latter try to respond to the former. It shows that audiovisual piracy needs to be seen as a complex phenomenon, intimately interwoven into the social, economic, cultural, and political structures of the countries surveyed.