Chapter 2

Review of related literature and Theoretical framework

Introduction
This chapter is a development and discussion of the context presented in Chapter 1. It is an
exploration and exposition of literature on the various factors relating to creation,
distribution and consumption of Intellectual Property in the digital age. The chapter will
look at literature thematically, analysing the given literature on aspects such as new media
and new media technologies influence on the culture of creation, distribution and
consumption of media products; Copyright in the digital age, The Political Economy of
Digital Intellectual Property as well as The Ethics of Digital Media creation, distribution
and consumption. The chapter will provide useful insights which define and clarify the
position which this study occupies within the broad conceptual map of the body of
knowledge that has been accumulated so far. This review aims to make an argument for the
relevance of this study. This chapter also includes a theoretical framework of perspectives
the researcher will utilize in this study.

Review of related literature

For the purposes of this study I will review literature on aspects such as the new media and
new media technologies role as enablers of cultural creation, distribution and consumption
of media products, Copyright in the digital age, the political economy of digital intellectual
property, as well the ethics of creation and consumption in the digital age.
The New Media and New Media Technology as enablers of cultural production &
consumption
The rise of the internet and technologies enabling its exploitation in creating, distributing
and consuming digital and digitised media has had a strong impact on the current state of
the global media industry in relation to the roles of producers and consumers. Most
literature approaches the rise of new media and new media technology negatively and from
the perspective of the producers or creators such as artists, record companies and film
studios.(Vittel 2003; Burley ,2012) However, a few give the perspective of this emergence

as being a positive thing for. This is especially so for creators and consumers in peripheral
regions of the global economic system. (Logie, 2006; Tade & Akinleye, 2012)
According to Benkler (2000) in Gauer (2012):
Many policies are attempting to shape the Internet and the digital
environment according to the structures typical of mass media.

This

includes the framing of users as passive consumers, who ideally acquire

content from only a few commercial sources and producers.
That is to say, the culture industry views audiences or consumers as passive and this
conception of passive consumers is incorporated in the industrys traditional business
models. In the digital age however users are increasingly independent. Gauer (2012) asserts
that, consumers consumption practices are changing together with the diffusion of new
technology. The emergence of the Internet and new media technologies has allowed
people to easily create and share and even hack, alter, remix and recreate content. These
new, technology altered audiences are increasingly autonomous and have ever-growing
levels of control over when [and] howthey consume media. (Gauer, 2012)
In his book Peers, Pirates and Persuasion Logie (2006) explores the phenomenon of
creation, distribution and consumption of intellectual property in a digital world with
particular emphasis on the rise of peer-to-peer networks and their impact on the music
industry. According to Logie (2006:8), new media and new media technologies have been
appropriated by individuals and even organisations in the peripheral regions of the global
economic system to creatively solve unique problems,

for example in the use and

maintenance of proprietary software such as Microsofts Windows Operating system. Logie

(2006) asserts that, in cultures mostly untouched by Western Intellectual Property laws
piracy has become more than a mode of criminally making money off the work of others
but rather a way to keep cultural systems functioning:
Most of the computers I used in Ukraine were running on pirated copies
of Microsofts Windows operating system, and the pirated copies were
sometimes incomplete. Because the bootleg Windows operating system
on the local computers was well-removed from any opportunities for legal
technical support, the computers were maintained by immensely talented
programmers (most of whom appeared to be in their early twenties) who

developed software-based bridges whenever they were needed to prop up

the operating system. Thus the Windows OSan emphatically proprietary
product in the U.S.was functioning on the model of open source
software, with hackers revising, patching, and improving the software to
meet the specific needs of Ukrainian users. (Logie, 2006:8)
In this vein, I assume that similarly in Zimbabwe the average consumer is far removed
from cheap and affordable access to much needed software. They must thus use new media
and its requisite technology creatively and often times criminally to access it. This may be
especially so in a University setting where various highly priced proprietary software
brands are to a great extent compulsorily used in the various research fields. There has thus
been a provenance of pirated software due to socio--economic constraints.
This study aims to explore this and various other motivations pertaining to the manner in
which Zimbabweans create and consume media products. Consumers have, as the
Ukrainian consumers highlighted by Logie (2006) had to develop unique ways to
circumnavigate the notions of proprietary intellectual property and strict adherence to the
concerns of foreign copyright holders. A study of this nature thus helps give the
Zimbabwean perspective to a global phenomenon that is only beginning to be fully
explored.
Intellectual Property in the Digital Age
Copyright protection is the life blood of the media industry. As such a basic knowledge of
the mechanism of copyright is necessary for all creators, distributors and consumers. This
especially equips them to fully understand the impact of the new media and new media
technologies on the creative industries in relation to enabling unregulateable digital
intellectual Property Practices. Such knowledge also highlights the need for the expansion
of intellectual property rights for the consumer in the digital age. (Gilleti, 2011)
Copyright gives proprietary rights over original forms of intellectual production and gives
the holder the right to exploit the work through licensing its copying in return for
compensation (Yar, 2005). The system permits rights holders and their licensees to produce
and reproduce work and sell it for a profit. According to Mhiripiri (2012):
Zimbabwes Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act prescribes that rightsholding artists accrue revenue from both the royalties subsisting in the

contracts that they sign and also from collective rights management often
known as mechanical rights. Mechanical rights are those arising from artist
works publicly performed by other parties for commercial gain, such as on
radio and television stations, in buses, restaurants and cinemas.
However, due to the rise of new media and new media technology in popularity and
availability, protection of this and other rights has become increasingly difficult. Copyright
infringement now occurs on a massive scale. (Yar, 2005; Royle, 2012). This infringement
has been described as digital piracy which is defined by Gopal et al. (2004) as the act of
copying digital goods, software, digital connections, digital audio (music and voice), and
digital video for any reason other than backup without explicit permission from and
compensation to the copyright holder. However while copyright infringement has
traditionally been for commercial gain with physical pirates demanding high retail prices
from low reproduction costs resulting in high profit margins (Benedict, 2012), in the digital age
it is as complex situation which primarily occurs for personal use, but is also frequently shared
and made available to the public through peer-to-peer networks. It can also occur inadvertently
in many online activities such as clicking a link. (Benedict, 2012)
Digital Piracy is a situation that cannot be simply explained and has been found to be due to a

complex series of factors that include the virtually unregulateable peer-to-peer networks
enabled by new media technologies such as cell phones, computers and high capacity flash
and portable hard drives (Logie, 2006), a lack of respect for the intangible as private
property (Gilleti, 2011) as well as economic factors which make distributing and accessing
infringing copies more attractive than legitimate acquisition. (Benedict, 2012; Royle, 2012,
Gopal et al, 2004)
In defence of peer to peer, Royle (2012) argues that, while peer-to-peer networks may seem
like heavily undermining the purpose of copyright law, File-sharing networks in fact do
not undermine the purpose of copyright law. These networks of social interaction and
culture provide a commons which can promote creativity. (Royle, 2012:58)
Tade and Akinleye, (2012) as well as Royle (2012) make the argument that creators benefit
from the infrastructure peer-to-peer networks provide to disseminate their works.
According to Royle (2012):

In 2007 Radiohead released the album In Rainbows online, independent of

a record label, and allowed customers to pay whatever they wanted for the
album or download it for free. It is estimated that the band could have made
up to $10m in initial album sales. This is an example of how the culture of
free music distribution has aided a band in circumventing the noxious
recording industry, which it previously would have been completely
dependent upon. It is submitted that file-sharing does not cause substantial
financial harm to the creators of works, and in some cases it may even be a
boon.
Similarly, Tade and Akinleye (2012) researching the reasons behind piracy at in Nigeria
came to discover that:
Up-and-coming artistes see pirates as helpful to them in achieving
stardom. As newcomers in the industry, budding artistes do not have the
financial muscle. It is costly for them to break into the market and meet
the financial demands to compete in a saturated profession like music.
Piratessee themselves as indispensable to the budding musicians
struggling for a presence in the music industry.
With this in mind, one can therefore argue that while current Zimbabwean policy pertaining
to Intellectual Property, particularly copyright approaches the idea media of piracy as being
more harmful than good to the cultural industry, evidence in the global arena posits
otherwise. Simply put, The only thing worse than being sampled on the Internet is not
being sampled (Norman Lear Center, 2005: 142). That is to say value in a new media
and digital technology context has progressively become more about being accessible and
circulated. The value of intellectual property in the digital age is now more about
availability and ease of access than about close adherence to the intangible as private
property. According to Peitz and Waelbroeck (2006) in Gilleti (2012)
...File sharing has the potential to increase the aggregate quantity
purchased by matching buyers preferences with products, P2P
networks result in purchases that compensate for any negative effects of
copyright infringement.

There is however , contention surrounding this assertion with regards to whether this
holds true for all record labels, regardless of size. Gilleti (2012) argues that it is more
likely that sampling would only benefit small independent labels whose artists have little
previous name recognition. File sharing as a method of media sampling can therefore be
effective for environment such as Zimbabwe whose culture industry is still developing and
growing. That is to say in an emerging economy whos creative industry is mostly small
independent organisations would find benefit in allowing for loser copyright and reviewed
business model. It would be prudent therefore for media professionals and policy makers to
look into ways to convert pirate distributors into legitimate distribution channels. Also, it
would be highly beneficial for stake holders to look into formulating ways in which both
creators and consumers can benefit from more liberalized intellectual property policies. As
asserted by Royle (2012):
Harsh copyright protection not only limits the benefits of file-sharing,
but can also proactively cause financial damage to the entrenched
industries by alienating consumers and even encouraging piracy of their
products. In practice, harsh enforcement measures may result in even
more negative consequences.
The Political Economy of Intellectual Property in the Digital Age
Traditionally, the power over the creation and distribution processes of creative content was
controlled by the large corporations that own the copyrights. In the digital age, distribution
of this power has afforded individuals greater opportunities for participation in the
economic, socio-cultural, and political environment in which media creation, distribution
and consumption is entrenched.
Bollier (2011) maintains that much of thestruggle over the terms of copyright law can
be traced to the disruptions caused by the Internet and the economic logic of open
platforms accessible to anyone via the World Wide Web.

New Media and its requisite

technology enable creation, distribution and access to content at a much lower cost than
that of conventional mass media. Traditional mass media business models such music and
cinema, for example, depend on distributing a limited selection of content choices to a large
group of fairly indistinguishable consumers. (Bollier, 2011) In this traditional model
creators are the prime source of expertise, innovation and production. And this tends to
determine the choices available. The new media have disrupted this traditional, centralised

apparatus by enabling individuals to come together to create, collaborate and curate their
own content. As supported by Bollier (2011):
Whether through blogs, listservs, collaborative archives, wikis, social
networking sites, or online gaming communities, Internet users have
been able to control their own creative and cultural production, much of
which is generated and distributed entirely outside of the marketplace
(with no cash transactions, legal contracts or corporate structures).
The commons as this new paradigm has been christened by scholars and commentators
is the emergence of more effective collective action practices that are decentralized but do
not rely on either the price system or a managerial structure for coordination (Benkler,
2006: 60).
Benkler terms this new media political economy commons-based peer production
(Benkler, 2006: 59-90). That is to say, it is a collaborative and open source system whose
basis lies in sharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely connected
individuals who cooperate with each other (Benkler, 2006: 60).
Bollier (2011) articulates that:
Peer production on open networks enables people to self-organize
themselves into communities, and to devise their own rules for granting
access, use and control of resources. The resources can take many forms
the software code that hackers share, the remix songs or video
mashups of web artists, user contributions to a web archive on a specific
topic, or the collection of leaked documents hosted by Wiki Leaks.
These social relationships in a boundless public sphere such as that of the internet and other
open networks and platforms, are changing the political economy of cultural production.
The relationships and collaboration on a massive scale that have been facilitated by the new
media and new media technology can produce significant economic value that negates the
need for markets and money. In this new economy people create valuable information
motivated by the urge to collaborate and share. (Bollier, 2011)
Bollier (2009: 122-144) contends further that the value of strict proprietary control over
works diminishes on open networks thus altering the value of traditional copyrights. In

other words copyright policies that allow for open access and use of a digital or digitised
work can prove to be more valuable than traditional copyright. The culture industries have
shown a high level of paranoia in relation to these new media enabled commons-based
models of cultural value. According to Bollier (2011):
These new models represent a fundamental shift in the structures of
cultural production and a departure from the logic of traditional
justifications for private ownership.
He posits that this revolution in the intellectual property paradigm is an inexorable force
in the media industries and highlights how, after years of resistance, the music industry in
the United States finally capitulated and removed digital rights management from most of
its online music. (Bollier, 2011:9)
He asserts that:
Consumers were rejecting DRM protected music, and sales were
plummeting. As the social circulation of CDs and digital music slowed, so
did the consumer market for the music. Only now are record companies
starting to explore new forms of digital distribution of music, even as
independent musicians experiment with innovative business models and
law scholars propose policy solutions such as compulsory licensing
schemes to remunerate artists. (Bollier, 2011:9)
In this vein, this study aims to explore and ascertain whether the creation, distribution and
consumption of digital IP in Zimbabwe has a political economy that is similar to the
commons based peer production paradigm posited by Benkler, (2006).
I enter into this research with the assumption that the current digital and digitised IP
paradigm prevalent in Zimbabwe at the moment is indeed one of mass collaboration. This
is particularly in relation to how creators share and make available the means of cultural
production at little to no cost to collaborators and consumers in perpetuity. If this
assumption is true then it may perhaps be prudent for policy makers and the media
industries to look at revising their business and legislative policy models to account for this
revolutionary paradigm shift.

Ethics of Digital Media Creation, Distribution and Consumption

In the foregoing I have focused on the behaviour of consumers of digital content
particularly in relation to pirated content. However an interesting trend has emerged
pertaining to the intentions of many pronsumer and distributors who either upload material
and or download material for mass distribution and this must also be considered. Becker
and Clement (2006) suggest that many distributors particularly those who distribute content
for free are motivated by altruism, reciprocity, or an obligation to the network itself in
their acts of gift giving. While in post industrial countries the majority of peer-to-peer
related piracy mostly occurs online, in Zimbabwe it remains mostly a matter of offline
peer-to-peer data transfer through cell phones, CD and DVD exchange and USB flash and
hard drives. In these offline peer to peer networks the sharing of data is based on the
concept of the gift economy and the idea of intangibles as free. (Feldman & Nadler, 2006).
According to Gilleti (2011), P2P networks function on the basis that individual users share
their data collection. Baym (2011) recast file sharing from an illegal practice to one
embedded in participatory culture, and in doing so, undermined the traditional distinction
between the creator and the consumer. The idea of the internet as a powerful sharing
system is vital in understanding the habits, norms and attitudes of the emerging generation
of creators, distributors and consumers native to the digital environment. For example, the
open source software movement is an example of an authentic sharing and participatory
culture that is counter to the hegemonic forces of production. (Gilleti, 2011)
Another trend emerging out of the digitisation of media and cultural products is that
consumers do not perceive and treat digital and digitised media as they would their
physical counterparts. This attitude towards digital media therefore influences the
consumers decisions in relation to whether or not to download a media product that
violates copyright. That is to say, to many individuals who download and consume pirated
material, piracy is a victimless crime as no actual tangible theft has been committed.
Styven (2010) argues that consumers possibly do not attach the same value to digital media
as they do to the physical product. Gilleti (2011) in this vein argues that new pleasures
emerge in obtaining access and consolidating a database of music files He further asserts
that recent research finds that young people may derive satisfaction from the process of
accessing and organizing a large collection.

Gauer (2012) recognises that media consumption practices are the outcome of various
factors, including changes or continuities insociety. That is to say, as a society interacts
with new technologies attitudes, ethics and norms form around the proper etiquette when
interacting in environments utilising these new technologies.
One can therefore justifiably argue that the ethical considerations behind digital piracy are
not as cut and dried as malicious exploitation of anothers intellectual property. That is to
say, it is possible that the emergent social norms surrounding peer-to-peer filesharing view
these acts infringement as an acceptable practice. As highlighted, numerous sociological
elements determine distribution, access and consumption trends in a digital environment.
(Logie, 2006; Styven, 2010; Gilleti, 2011) This study seeks therefore to explore the
phenomenological aspects of IP creation and consumption in Zimbabwe with particular
focus on whether these factors do indeed have any influence on.

Theoretical Framework
This study will be informed by existing theories that interrogate and explain creation,
distribution and consumption of resources as well as theories informing producer and
consumer (audience) attitudes and behaviour particularly Political Economy, Neoliberalism
and The Uses and Gratifications Theory.
Political Economy
At an overarching level, this study explores the extent to which new media and new media
technologies have influenced attitudes towards intellectual property in relation to how and
why individuals create, distribute and consume digital media. Political economy can
therefore be used to frame this research as it is according to Mosco (2009) , the study of
social relations, particularly the power relations that mutually constitute the production,
distribution, and consumption of resources, including communication resources. It is also,
the study of control and survival in social life whereby control refers specifically to how a
society organizes itself, manages its affairs and adapts, or fails to adapt, to the inevitable
changes that all societies face. (Mosco.2009:3)
The concept of Political economy places an emphasis on socio-economic power relations
that would give insight into the digital media consumers evolving position relative to the
traditional notions of creator and distributor. It is therefore as an apt theoretical base for

study of the phenomenon of creation and consumption of intellectual property in the digital
age due to its particular regard for the control of resources and power relations that
influence the processes of creation, distribution and consumption. It will therefore, serve as
part of the theoretical triangulation method that will be used in framing this research.
Lazzarato (1997), Dyer-Witheford (1999) and Hardt and Negri (2000, 2004) are scholars
who have explored the political economy of New Media. They are concerned with the
power relations that mutually constitute the production, distribution, and exchange of
resources from an autonomist perspective. (Mosco,2009) The Autonomist perspective in
Political Economy argues for the autonomy of the working class and maintains that
capitalism is propelled by the energy and activity of those who work within it. Mosco
(2009:120) That is to say, autonomists exploration of political economy focuses on the
activity and self organization of the mass. In that vein Hardt and Negri (2004) contend that,
the rise of the new media and new media technology does not serve capitalism but it in
fact significantly disrupts it.
This study serves to explore how the New Media has disrupted capitalism with particular
relation to how it has liberalized access to the means of production. Capitalism is based on
the idea of markets ,a system of private property and legal controls that limit what people
are allowed to do in these markets.(Mosco,2009). In relation to Intellectual property,
copyright, laws restrict peoples use of information and ideas that others own. Autonomists
argue however that, due to the widespread availability new media technology, it has
become very difficult for capitalism to preserve a legal regime of information and ideas as
private property. From an autonomist perspective, new media technology does not only
challenge traditional property and market rules but it also facilitates for people to disrupt
the system. That is to say, the new media technologies available to capitalism as tools to
create, manage and control markets are also available to the masses at relatively low. The
ease of access to technology that allows freely creating and sharing files containing data,
audio, and video, and of copying material of all sorts, challenges the ability of capitalism to
maintain and regulate intellectual property market regimes.
For media scholars today, including political economists, copyright is a hot topic of debate.
Mosco (2009) posits that, Who will control intellectual property? is one of the central
questions facing political economy today.

Political economy is therefore a theory that

can aptly serve in framing and exploring a study of this nature.

Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes
that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial
freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private
property rights, free markets and free trade. Furthermore, if markets do not exist then
they must be created, by state action if necessary. But beyond these tasks the state should
not venture. State interventions in markets (once created) must be kept to a bare
minimum. (Harvey 2005:2).
In relation to this study, the concept of Neoliberalism will inform and be instrumental in
analyzing the impetus behind choices made by creators and distributors as entrepreneurs in
an industry that is rapidly self liberating. It will also be helpful in understanding consumers
in a media environment where due to the rise of easily accessible creation and distribution
technologies the lines between creator, distributor and consumer have been blurred to the
point of non existence. As asserted by Harvey (2005) the process of neoliberalization has
entailed much creative destruction of prior institutional frameworks, divisions of
labour, social relations, technological mixes [as well as] ways of life and thought.
Neoliberalism argues that by maximizing the reach and frequency of market transactions
more social good maybe achieved and thus all human action must be brought into the
domain of the market. (Harvey, 2005:3) The new media and their requisite technology
offer neoliberals technologies that enable information creation and facilitate the
accumulation, storage, transfer and analysis of massive databases to guide decisions in the
global marketplace. This has led to intense contention over private property practices that
have been facilitated by the new media technologies. That is, on the one hand, new media
technologies have allowed for more markets and a massive freeing up of entrepreneurial
potential and skill a la neoliberal ideology. On the other hand, however, they have emerged
as perfect tools for undermining private property rights by creating open access zones
where market rules and trends are neither enforceable nor welcome.
(Mansell, 2004) asserts that, free access to creative content and its sharing among users
clearly runs counter to neoliberal economic structures and the treatment of culture as
private goods However , one can argue that Neoliberalism is perhaps responsible for this
culture of free access to creative content through globalization. The new media and new
media technology while enabling neoliberal ideology to perpetuate through globalization

have also created a want for foreign cultural goods in peripheral regions of the globe. In
most instances the only ways to access these materials will be violation of copyright
through downloading and unauthorised peer-to-peer transfer. With this in mind, the current
digital media creation and consumption trends can be attributed to the effects of
Neoliberalism and globalization.
Uses and Gratifications Theory
According to McQuail (1994),the uses and gratifications approach is generally a subtradition of media effects research .In its early incarnations the approach was developed to
study the gratifications that attract and hold audiences to the media and the types of
content that satisfy their social and psychological needs (Cantril, 1942). This formative
research was often experimental or quasi-experimental involving situations where
communication conditions were manipulated in search of lessons about how better to
communicate and, or about the inadvertent consequences of messages (Klapper, 1960).
Other media effects research sought to discover motives and selection patterns of audiences
for the new mass media. (Rugiero, 2000) Blumler (1979) identified three primary social
origins of media gratifications: normative influences, socially distributed life changes, and
the subjective reaction of the individual to the social situation.
For the purposes of this study uses and gratifications theory will be used in exploring
consumers motivations for their media product acquisition and consumption behaviour in
relation to the drastic social and politico-economic changes created by the emergence of
new media and new media technologies particularly with regard to Blumlers (1979)
origins of uses and gratifications. It will inform the researchers assumption that consumer's
various uses and gratifications needs override strict observance of morals and ethics with
regard to intellectual property.
Uses and Gratifications theory is categorised into five perspectives of uses gratifications
that is, cognitive, affective, personal integrative, social integrative and tension release
needs (Katz et all,1973; Severin and Tankard ,1997; Blumler and Katz,1974) . Sangwan
(2005) articulates that:
Cognitive needs represent the intrinsic desire for information acquisition
for knowledge and understanding in an increasingly information rich
society while affective needs are related to emotional experiences, and

intrinsic desire for pleasure, entertainment and aesthetics. Personal

integrative needs derive from individuals desire to appear credible, be
perceived as confident, and have high self-esteem. These needs are closely
related to an individuals value system. Social integrative needs are
affiliation needs where audience want to be part of a group, and want to be
recognized as part of the group and relate to sense of belonging. Tension
release needs, relate to the need for escape and diversion from problems
and routines.
In relation to this study the perspectives that will be most valuable in the analysis of
consumption of intellectual property will be the cognitive needs and social integrative
needs approaches. This is in close relation with the findings of Gilleti (2011) , Bollier
(2011) and Royle(2012) who argue that the participatory nature of peer-to-peer filesharing
systems and the need for collaboration (social integration) drive the current intellectual
property creation and consumption paradigm. As highlighted previously Bollier (2011)
argues that recent studies have found that young people may derive satisfaction from of
accessing and organizing a progressively larger media collection.
Conclusion
The foregoing was a review of related literature and theories on the various factors relating
to creation, distribution and consumption of Intellectual Property in the digital age. It was
also an exploration into the status quo on new media and new media technologies
influence on the culture of creation, distribution and consumption of media products and
the ongoing debates surrounding creation and consumption of digital and digitised
Intellectual Property.

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department of Media and Society Studies

Chapter 2
The Creation and Consumption of Intellectual Property in the Digital Age:
A Case of Midlands State University

Submitted by
Sasha Shingai Jahanoda Nhara
R104655E
0773 591 959
sashanhara@yahoo.com

Supervisor
Mr O. Ndoro

References
Blumler J.G. and Katz, E. (1974) .The uses of mass communications: Current perspectives
on gratifications research. Sage Publications.
Katz, E , Gurevitch, M and Hass H. (1973). On the Use of Mass Media for Important
Things. American Sociological Review, 38(2), 164-181
Severin, Werner J. and Tankard, James W.(1997) Communication Theories: Origins,
Methods, and uses in the mass media. 3rd Edition. London. Longman