Media Piracy as a Cultural Phenomenon

<p>This work is devoted to <a>studying</a>&nbsp; the specificity of media piracy as a phenomenon of <a>the</a>&nbsp;culture. The author questioned the generally accepted interpretation of piracy as a purely dysfunctional economic phenomena and aims to determine the place of pirate media practices in&nbsp;<a>the</a>&nbsp;culture and&nbsp;<a>the</a>&nbsp; society. To achieve this goal during the work, the author solves the following tasks:<br />- Defines the concept of &quot;media piracy&quot; in the context of copyright system;<br />- Explores the transformation of this concept during transition from industrial national societies to global informational society;<br />- Analyzes and systematizes modern alternative theoretical interpretations of the digital piracy phenomenon;<br />- Examines the historical and cultural preconditions for the development of the audiovisual piracy in Russia;<br />- Analyzes pirate practices of Russian residents.<br />The work is done based on the analysis of theoretical works and independent empirical research. Using the methods of comparative, structural-functional, cultural analysis, and the analysis of documents (regulations, international agreements) the author analyses the formation and transformation of media piracy in the context of world and Russian culture. In addition to theoretical methods, the author analyzes a series of in-depth interviews with Internet users conducted by the HSE Laboratory of media communications research in the rural settlement of Koksoviy Belokalitvinsky district of Rostov region. The analysis of the interviews reveals a number of everyday pirated media practices of the villagers, as well as allows us to understand the discourse of media piracy that <a>has bee</a>&nbsp; formed by the mass media in recent years.<br />Theoretical sources and empirical data studied during the research allow the author to define a number of roles that media piracy plays in different spheres of <a>the<u>&nbsp;</u></a>social life. This, in turn, leads to the conclusion that media piracy acts as&nbsp;system element of <a>the</a>&nbsp;modern culture and in certain circumstances plays the number of compensatory roles in <a>the</a>&nbsp;society, that is, cannot be interpreted as a purely dysfunctional phenomenon.</p>