The Social Construction of Napster
This paper attempts to unpack a few of the vast array of assumptions implicit in how "the technology" known as Napster was understood by several of its key constituencies. Our approach examines discourse about Napster in several areas - legal, economic, social, and cultural. This approach...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
2004
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5049 |
| _version_ | 1811080747777261568 |
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| author | Spitz, David Hunter, Starling |
| author_facet | Spitz, David Hunter, Starling |
| author_sort | Spitz, David |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This paper attempts to unpack a few of the vast array of assumptions implicit in how "the technology" known as Napster was understood by several of its key constituencies. Our approach examines discourse about Napster in several areas - legal, economic, social, and cultural. This approach enables us to understand "the technology" as an ongoing encounter, rather than the accomplishment of any one inventor, team of inventors, dominant institution, or rule of law. We do not offer proscriptive advice. While there is value in other research that has tried to determine the "impact of Napster on" a particular market or industry, we argue that a multidimensional understanding is necessary both as a foundation for such research as well as in its own right. In only the past four years, dominant interpretations of Napster have not only emerged, but also have been inscribed into laws, business plans, and purchasing decisions, in effect, determining what "tools" - precedents, myths, data sets, prior objects, capabilities - will be available in the future. Our paper tries to show how and why certain (subjective) significations increasingly have taken on the status of truth, while other (equally subjective) discourses have been pushed farther and farther out to the fringes |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:36:08Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | mit-1721.1/5049 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:36:08Z |
| publishDate | 2004 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/50492019-04-10T23:47:32Z The Social Construction of Napster Spitz, David Hunter, Starling Napster peer to peer culture information technology music industry digital music This paper attempts to unpack a few of the vast array of assumptions implicit in how "the technology" known as Napster was understood by several of its key constituencies. Our approach examines discourse about Napster in several areas - legal, economic, social, and cultural. This approach enables us to understand "the technology" as an ongoing encounter, rather than the accomplishment of any one inventor, team of inventors, dominant institution, or rule of law. We do not offer proscriptive advice. While there is value in other research that has tried to determine the "impact of Napster on" a particular market or industry, we argue that a multidimensional understanding is necessary both as a foundation for such research as well as in its own right. In only the past four years, dominant interpretations of Napster have not only emerged, but also have been inscribed into laws, business plans, and purchasing decisions, in effect, determining what "tools" - precedents, myths, data sets, prior objects, capabilities - will be available in the future. Our paper tries to show how and why certain (subjective) significations increasingly have taken on the status of truth, while other (equally subjective) discourses have been pushed farther and farther out to the fringes 2004-03-05T20:08:53Z 2004-03-05T20:08:53Z 2004-03-05T20:08:53Z Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5049 en_US MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper;4445-03 252735 bytes application/pdf application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Napster peer to peer culture information technology music industry digital music Spitz, David Hunter, Starling The Social Construction of Napster |
| title | The Social Construction of Napster |
| title_full | The Social Construction of Napster |
| title_fullStr | The Social Construction of Napster |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Social Construction of Napster |
| title_short | The Social Construction of Napster |
| title_sort | social construction of napster |
| topic | Napster peer to peer culture information technology music industry digital music |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/5049 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT spitzdavid thesocialconstructionofnapster AT hunterstarling thesocialconstructionofnapster AT spitzdavid socialconstructionofnapster AT hunterstarling socialconstructionofnapster |