Why Napster Matters to Writing: Filesharing As a New Ethic of Digital Deliveryଝ
Computers and Composition 23 (2006) 178–210 Why Napster matters to writing: Filesharing as a new ethic of digital deliveryଝ Danielle` Nicole DeVoss a,∗, James E. Porter b a Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, Michigan State University, 235 Bessey Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA b Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, Michigan State University, 5 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Abstract This article discusses the Napster phenomenon and its cultural significance, traces some of the threads of the current “copyright crisis,” and connects these cultural and legal dynamics to show how the current filesharing context of digital environments pertains to issues affecting writing teachers. The article (1) urges writing teachers to view the Napster moment—and the writing practice at the center of it, filesharing—in terms of the rhetorical and economic dynamics of digital publishing and in the context of public battles about copyright and intellectual property and (2) argues that digital filesharing forms the basis for an emergent ethic of digital delivery, an ethic that should lead composition teachers to rethink pedagogical approaches and to revise plagiarism policies to recognize the value of filesharing and to acknowledge Fair Use as an ethic for digital composition. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Delivery; Digital rhetoric; Ethics; Filesharing; Napster; Plagiarism We think that Napster matters, or should matter, to writing teachers. That’s not the same as saying that the technology necessarily and specifically matters—we need to draw that important distinction at the outset. Scholars in computers and writing have long recognized that the networked computer changes the fundamental rhetoric of communication, the writing process, writer–reader dynamics, the design of the page or screen, and so on.1 And, to a great ଝ Licensing: This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons License (2.0).
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