Food for thought...

Thank you James for your comment on my blog “I better not get in trouble for this...”. I feel James really highlights the moral dilemma that exists in certain social circles about file sharing. I have friends in unsigned bands who actively seek peer-to-peer sharing of their music, in the hope that a music producer will discover and sign them.

(Just a small plug)
Shouting at Mary is an awesome Brisbane based band who are currently unsigned. They’ve uploaded many of their tracks to their Myspace site where users can download songs and lyrics. I think this is a creative and innovative way to seek out a support network, and build a reputation.

Axel Bruns also describes a shift towards the use of converged media, and file-sharing.

“It is now becoming possible to suggest that rather than perceiving and analysing streaming media, YouTube, video filesharing, and IPTV from a perspective shaped by half a century and more of television production and consumption, a reversal of focus may be in order: this would position the emerging Internet-based video distribution models as the core exemplars in relation to which conventional broadcast, cable, and pay-TV models may be described and understood.” (2008)

I interpret this to mean that traditional media comes across “second-rate” (Bruns 2008) compared to the internet which allows mass communication and sharing of knowledge between its members and co contributors. I could further extend my blog to include Axel’s interesting research, however will refrain from doing so at the risk of regurgitating his entire essay.

Overall I believe my statement that file sharing is social unacceptable, has been well challenged. While I still believe that in my immediate friendship group file sharing is unacceptable, it would be worth researching other social circles and their reasons for illegal file sharing.


Bruns, A. 2008. Reconfiguring Television for a Networked, Produsage Context. Beyond Broadcasting 126. http://snurb.info/files/Reconfiguring%20Television%20for%20a%20Networked,%20Produsage%20Context.pdf (accessed May 12, 2008).