Under the Pixelated Jolly Roger: A Study of On-Line Pirates

Abstract

Digital piracy—a type of copyright infringement—is a global phenomenon that allegedly contains grave economic consequences for intellectual property industries. Its pervasiveness has produced a global piracy subculture. This article describes our study of digital pirates who actively participate in an on-line discussion board dedicated to copyright infringement. It explores their motivations, techniques of neutralization, and contradictions within a community-wide belief system. Motivations among this group include a desire to share content, to sample content before purchasing, to acquire intellectual property that is unaffordable, and to subvert copyright law. We then apply Sykes and Matza's (1957 Sykes , Gresham and David Matza . 1957 . “Techniques of Neutralization: A Theory of Delinquency.” American Sociological Review 22 : 664 – 670 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) techniques of neutralization. Finally, we discuss contradictions within this group's belief systems; specifically acceptance and rejection of capitalism and state power and formal control.

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