[Reader-list] A man, with his notes, in the city... (music and copy culture)

[Danny Butt]

I'd like to add my appreciation for Bhagwati's work which I think is brining
a much needed anthropological angle into the property/copy discussions, and
I'm also having my thinking expanded by his work.

The goal of the transnational capital (as i see it) is to flatten and
incorporate spaces of difference under open signifiers ("piracy") that are
controlled through exclusive and expensive social/legal technologies. In
other words, to make words like "piracy" apply to as many activities as
possible that do not result in direct benefit to transnational capital.

Detailed studies such as this show how the "copy" is not a purely
technological/instrumental activity, but describes a diverse range of social
practices that needs to be understood within a system of relations (albeit
relations that are structured by external forces as well as internal ones).

 One of the themes of the January conference seemed to be the need for a
better understanding of these relationships, and as Jaszi noted *new
narratives* can do a lot of good work in the legal. Questions of genre
(highlighted in Bhagwati's other postings), ritual and sociality are I think
underexplored in these discussions.

Not really adding much to Jeebesh's summary, but just some thoughts and to
say I'm also enjoying and leaning from this work - thanks!

Danny

--
http://www.dannybutt.net
http://weblog.dannybutt.net  <<-- new!



On 2/21/05 5:08 PM, "Jeebesh Bagchi" <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:

> Thanks Bhagwati.
> 
> Those of you who have been following Bhagwati's postings will notice a
> shift in his arguments. Given a complete inability to understand
> `piracy`, at one end by `free culture/ free code` advocates and at the
> other end by the `maximalist` protection` brigade, his research is
> opening some fresh ground for us.
> 
> The dominant arguments go something like this:
> - Asian `pirate` networks are parasitic networks and are just
> transmitters of illegal copies (Lessig)
> - It is inimical to any formation of community (RMS)
> - It is a drain on `national wealth` (cultural industries and their
> legal warriors).
> - There is no sign of any transformative creative practice, thus very
> difficult to defend intellectually (many otherwise sympathetic scholars).
> 
> What Bhagwati's research shows:
> 
> - A copy culture builds infrastructures and networks (the infrastructure
> argument can be seen in Brain Larkin's work in Nigeria around video
> cultures).
> - These networks are dispersed, agile and dense. They move into
> otherwise `technologically marooned spaces` (this concept is being
> developed by Ravikant at Sarai) and create a lower threshold level that
> allows for the entry of thousands of people.
> 
> - Researching the proliferation of the `remix` culture, he shows how
> these networks have developed internal `productive capacities` to
> intervene, produce and circulate new cultural forms. His collection of
> `Kaante Laga Ke` versions clearly gestured towards an increasingly
> complicated matrix.
> 
> - Now with this new phase, he is opening up a new realm (the realm that
> was opened up in Peter Manuel's Cassette Culture). This is a world of
> so called `regional music`. Here, singers, musicians, sound engineers,
> small time dealers, locality studios combine to produce an extremely
> vibrant music culture for the `mobile-migrant` world of labour and the
> mohalla (dense habitations outside of the planned grids). You can listen
> to these songs on a public scale in Delhi during holi, Chatt festival, etc.
> 
> We need to understand that this culture of music was able to emerge and
> grow within the infrastructure and networks that were built over a
> period of time around the `illegitimate` culture of the copy.
> 
> Peter Jaszi, argued in his recent `Contested Commons` lecture, that we
> have a very inadequate understanding of the realm of the `user` or
> `consumer`, and thus are conceptually impoverished. This impoverishment
> adversely diminishes our account of cultures, we confine our logic to
> the analysis of just copying/imitation mechanisms. This is the lacuna
> that allows the enforcers to easily bring up the discourse of
> criminalisation.  (This is applicable to both the high bandwidth
> peer-to-peer networks and also to other commerce-tainted copy cultures).
> 
> Thanks again, Bhagwati, for opening up this terrain. Such research
> deepens our understanding of lives, as well as of songs.
> Best,
> Jeebesh
> 
> Bhagwati wrote:
> 
>> 
>> A man, with his notes, in the city...
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Bhagwati wrote:
> 
>> 
>> A man, with his notes, in the city...
>> 
>> 
> 
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