The Anthropology of File Sharing: Consuming Napster As a Gift

Abstract

This research seeks to inform our understanding of the consumption meanings and communal activities surrounding file-sharing systems. In the present netnographic analysis of Napster consumption meanings, we develop a theoretical framework that conceptualizes file-sharing systems as gifting communities. Within this framework we discuss the gifting structure, describing the mode of exchange and the ways in which it constructs community. We then employ four predominant metaphors to conceptualize gifting motivation as realization, purification, participation and renovation. This netnography is based on cyber-interviews, emails, homepages and entries on message boards.

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