Online Piracy, Anonymity and Social Change – Deviance Through Innovation

This article analyses current trends in the use of anonymity services among younger Swedes (15-25) and focuses on individuals engaging in illegal file sharing in order to better understand the rationale behind both file sharing as well as online anonymity, especially in relation to enforcement of copyright. By comparing the findings of a survey conducted on three different occasions (early 2009, late 2009 and early 2012), we measure the fluctuations in the use of anonymity services among approximately 1,000 15-25-year olds in Sweden, compare them to file sharing frequencies and, to some extent, trends within legal enforcement. The article also suggests that the key to understanding any relationship between copyright enforcement and fluctuations in online anonymity can be found in the law’s relationship to social norms in terms of legitimacy by showing a correlation between file sharing frequency and the use of anonymity services. The findings indicate that larger proportions of frequent file sharers (downloaders) also use anonymity services more often than those who file share less. However, in comparison to the earlier surveys, the strongest increase in the use of anonymity services is found in the groups where file sharing is less frequent, suggesting that reasons for actively making oneself less traceable online other than avoiding copyright enforcement have emerged since the initial two surveys in 2009. Further, the overall increase (from 8.6% to 14.9%) in using anonymity services found for the whole group of respondents suggests both that high file sharing frequency is a driver for less traceability as well as a larger trend for online anonymity relating to other factors than mere file sharing of copyright infringing content – for example, increased governmental identification, data retention and surveillance in the online environment. The results are analysed in Merton’s terminology as file sharers and protocol architects adapting in terms of both innovation and rebellion in the sense that institutional means for achieving specific cultural goals are rejected. This means, to some extent, participating in or contributing to the construction of other means for reaching cultural goals

Professionalizzazione, Gender, e Animato nelle Comunità di File Sharing Globale

Abstract in Italian Nell’aprile 2011, al famoso logo della community di file sharing globale The Pirate Bay fu aggiunta l’immagine di una lente di ingrandimento e il nome del sito cambiò in The Research Bay. Gli utenti che cliccarono sul nuovo logo furono reindirizzati su un sondaggio online; durante le 72 ore di svolgimento dello studio, 75.000 file-sharer compilarono il questionario preparato dal gruppo di ricerca Cybernorms. Il sondaggio, in lingua inglese, conteneva domande a risposta multipla e domande aperte: lo scopo era migliorare la comprensione dei comportamenti, delle motivazione e delle dinamiche alla base del fenomeno del file sharing. Per tale motivo, le norme sociali interne alla comunità di file sharing, in netto contrasto con la legge, sono state il focus principale dello studio. Il proposito alla base di questo studio è stato il tentativo di descrivere dall’interno una community di file sharing e fare luce sui profili demografici e sulle strutture sociali sottese al fenomeno diventato una delle più grandi sfide per la Proprietà Intellettuale. Analizzando i dati del sondaggio abbiamo riscontrato due temi vitali al fine di comprender le community di file sharing come The Pirate Bay: 1) Il gender: una comunità composta da giovani uomini; 2) La “professionalizzazione” o specializzazione: la suddivisione del lavoro tra gli utenti. Si potrebbe parlare di professionalizzazione o di specializzazione dei ruoli all’interno dell’“ecosistema” del file sharing. Gli utenti che hanno risposto ai nostri quesiti rappresentano un legame con una catena più ampia, una componente vitale di un ecosistema di condivisione più esteso. Tale professionalizzazione suggerisce la presenza di una organizzazione strutturata all’interno della comunità di cui BitTorrent gioca un ruolo importante ma non omnicomprensivo. Non si tratta di una struttura costruita ad hoc piuttosto di un’organizzazione per la disseminazione di contenuti dove il gender svolge un ruolo significativo. Un gruppo piuttosto ristretto e specializzato di giovani uomini, con buone competenze tecniche e legali, scarica contenuti attraverso il protocollo BitTorrent e a sua volta lo passa su network locali dove viene distribuito attraverso differenti strumenti come il passa mano di supporti digitali. Ciò fa si che l’intera catena di scambi sia protetta da eventuali forme di controllo. Gli scambi offline, infatti, sono decisamente più complessi da monitorare e controllare

The Digital IP Challenge Revisited – File-sharing and Copyright Development in Hungary

The emphasis here is the need to understand both the normative gap and the role of digital architecture in order to display the inherent challenge that copyright meets in a digital society. Consequently, in being a descriptively focused study, this article studies contemporary Hungarian copyright and contrasts this to the findings from a survey with over 500 respondents from the Hungarian file-sharing community. In addition, this sample of Hungarian file-sharers is also compared to the findings from a near global sample of over 96,000 respondents to allow for determining distinctive traits of the Hungarian respondents. The findings indicate that due to their specific language, Hungarians are more motivated to set up and run their own darknet sites where copyrighted contents – mainly movies and TV-shows – are available not only in original releases, but with Hungarian translations as well. The popularity of darknet sites is similarly due to their special focus on different subject matter and categories. It is also salient that as long as the main darknet torrent-indexing sites are running, their users are not required to subscribe to VPN services and hide themselves via technological measures from the eyes of the right-holders and the police. The key motivation for file-sharers in Hungary seems to be its cost-free nature. As long as the price of copyrighted contents is high compared to the average income, Hungarians will not be motivated to use subscription models or purchase works in hard copies. File-sharing, therefore, seems to represent resistance to the pricing models of works rather than any expression of political opinion (as is the case with many “pirates”)

Parallel Norms: File-sharing and Contemporary Copyright Development in Australia

This article studies contemporary Australian copyright and contrasts this to a large-scale online survey on file sharing in order to analyse the seemingly parallel and non-compliant legal and social norms that they represent. Furthermore, a selection of 3,575 Australian respondents to an online survey is compared to a large scale near global group of over 96,000 respondents, allowing determining distinctive traits of the Australian respondents. For example, the latter use offline methods for sharing and receive rather than distribute content to a higher extent in comparison to the global group of respondents. Furthermore, Australian respondents also have slightly less predominance of male sharers

Law, Norms, Piracy and Online Anonymity – Practices of de-identification in the global file sharing community

Purpose The purpose of this study is to better understand online anonymity in the global file-sharing community in the context of social norms and copyright law. The study describes the respondents in terms of use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or similar services with respect to age, gender, geographical location, as well as analysing the correlation with file-sharing frequencies. Design/methodology/approach This study, to a large extent, collected descriptive data through a web-based survey. This was carried out in collaboration with the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay (TPB), which allowed us to link the survey from the main logo of their site. In 72 hours, we received over 75,000 responses, providing the opportunity to compare use of anonymity services with factors of age, geographical region, file-sharing frequency, etc. Findings Overall, 17.8 per cent of the respondents used a VPN or similar service (free or paid). A core of high-frequency uploaders is more inclined to use VPNs or similar services than the average file sharer. Online anonymity practices in the file-sharing community depend on how legal and social norms correlate (more enforcement means more anonymity). Research limitations/implications The web-based survey was in English and mainly attracted visitors on The Pirate Bay’s web site. This means that it is likely that those who do not have the language skills necessary were excluded from the survey. Practical implications This study adds to the knowledge of online anonymity practices in terms of traceability and identification, and therefore describes some of the conditions for legal enforcement in a digital environment. Social implications This study adds to the knowledge of how the Internet is changing in terms of a polarization between stronger means of legally enforced identification and a growing awareness of how to be more untraceable. Originality/value The scale of the survey, with over 75,000 respondents from most parts of the world, has likely not been seen before on this topic. The descriptive study of anonymity practices in the global file-sharing community is therefore likely unique

Studying Norms and Social Change in a Digital Age: Identifying and Understanding a Multidimensional Gap Problem

The fact that the debate concerning copyright in a digital society has been both intense and filled with polemic conflicts ever since the late 1990s makes it clear that it is a most complicated issue to solve, or even grasp. Basically, both the legal and societal discussion and development are explicitly dependent on a greater understanding of the on-going processes surrounding copyright. This presents a well-suited point of departure for research such as the one conducted within the Cybernorms research group – both in terms of providing valuable insights into the field of sociology of law when it comes to understanding how to relate to the framework provided by digitalization in general and the Internet in particular, and in terms of providing more accurate knowledge and toolsets to legislators in related fields

Subsequent Event Risk in Individuals with Established Coronary Heart Disease:Design and Rationale of the GENIUS-CHD Consortium

BACKGROUND: The "GENetIcs of sUbSequent Coronary Heart Disease" (GENIUS-CHD) consortium was established to facilitate discovery and validation of genetic variants and biomarkers for risk of subsequent CHD events, in individuals with established CHD. METHODS: The consortium currently includes 57 studies from 18 countries, recruiting 185,614 participants with either acute coronary syndrome, stable CHD or a mixture of both at baseline. All studies collected biological samples and followed-up study participants prospectively for subsequent events. RESULTS: Enrollment into the individual studies took place between 1985 to present day with duration of follow up ranging from 9 months to 15 years. Within each study, participants with CHD are predominantly of self-reported European descent (38%-100%), mostly male (44%-91%) with mean ages at recruitment ranging from 40 to 75 years. Initial feasibility analyses, using a federated analysis approach, yielded expected associations between age (HR 1.15 95% CI 1.14-1.16) per 5-year increase, male sex (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.13-1.21) and smoking (HR 1.43, 95% CI 1.35-1.51) with risk of subsequent CHD death or myocardial infarction, and differing associations with other individual and composite cardiovascular endpoints. CONCLUSIONS: GENIUS-CHD is a global collaboration seeking to elucidate genetic and non-genetic determinants of subsequent event risk in individuals with established CHD, in order to improve residual risk prediction and identify novel drug targets for secondary prevention. Initial analyses demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of a federated analysis approach. The consortium now plans to initiate and test novel hypotheses as well as supporting replication and validation analyses for other investigators

The psychological science accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data