Piracy Cultures| “Free Culture” Lost in Translation

Abstract

Analyzing groups such as the Brazilian fans of the television series “Lost” and their independent streaming and subtitling activities, this article discusses the relationships among virtual communities of fans and the implications for distribution, access, and exchange of content produced by cultural industries. It defends the view that the flexibility of a worldwide network of fans, fragmented and disseminated on a global scale, allows their actions to operate not only as catalysts of the discussion around access and distribution of cultural products, but to challenge power levels, compressing hierarchies through as-yet-unimaginable forms of participation. It argues that the activities examined are part of a new design of interdependence of media such as TV and the Internet and that the role of groups such as the “Lost” fans studied are fundamental to the discussion of the flow of media products in a globalized society.