Reciprocity and Sharing in an Underground File Sharing Community

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnography of an underground music file sharing community. Roswell exists as a means to download and share digital music. The web-based community is based on distributed peer-to-peer technology and uses BitTorrent protocols to share content. Actor-Network Theory is used to understand importance of reciprocity and sharing in an online file sharing community, and the role that obligations and banishment play in encouraging active participation. This paper contributes to the Information Systems literature by applying Actor-Network Theory to an ethnographic empirical study of an online music community.

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