Oink, Mnemotechnics and the Private Bittorrent Architecture
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Digital desire and recorded music: OiNK, mnemotechnics and the private BitTorrent architecture Andrew Sockanathan PhD Thesis Goldsmiths College Centre for Cultural Studies 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own ___________________ Andrew Sockanathan 2 Abstract This thesis centres on the P2P internet protocol BitTorrent, music filesharing, and nascent forms of collective action developing through private BitTorrent communities. The focus is on one of these communities, a music filesharing website called ‘OiNK’. Founded in 2005, it was the first of its kind to garner membership in the hundreds of thousands, was emblematic of user-led movements to improve the quality, efficiency and availability of digital media online, and was very publically shut down in 2007. Making critical use of Simondon’s notion of ‘individuation’, two interrelated techno- historical impulses are identified as central to the ‘in-formation’ of both BitTorrent and OiNK. Firstly, through research into the development of the global music industry’s ‘productive circuit’ of manufacturing, distribution, retail and radio, it is shown how consumers were gradually excluded from having a say in how, what and where they could consume. Secondly, a history of ‘OiNK-style’ filesharing is gleaned, not from P2P, but from research into small, decentralised ‘online’ communities that emerged throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, where enthusiasts learned how to use software and hardware to manage the storage, reproduction, uploading and sharing of information. This thesis shows how BitTorrent exposed these previously exclusive practices to masses of consumers who were dissatisfied with both retail/broadcasting and public P2P, through the new possibility of private BitTorrent communities. Through a case study of OiNK, encompassing in-depth interviews with ex-members, screenshots and technical analysis, this thesis shows how OiNK gathered a large and diverse online cache of ‘archival grade’ recorded music, bringing old and deleted music back into circulation and amassing a core of fanatically committed members. It accounts for a nascent form of online community, where large member-bases manage every aspect of the reproduction and circulation of digital artefacts, and at higher levels of quality/efficiency than legal alternatives. 3 Table of Contents Table of Figures .......................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 12 OiNK: A very brief overview .......................................................................................... 18 OiNK and this thesis ...................................................................................................... 23 This thesis and OiNK ..................................................................................................... 25 Section 1: The OiNK-BitTorrent architecture and individuation ...... 27 Chapter 1 – The basic operation of OiNK and BitTorrent. ........................................... 28 Virtual methods – Removing the ground ...................................................................... 28 The long death of OiNK ................................................................................................. 32 How OiNK and BitTorrent ‘work’ .................................................................................. 39 The client software ....................................................................................................... 41 Tracker websites: Interaction with the client ............................................................... 43 Chapter 2 – Theory, methodology and the ‘operation’ of OiNK and BitTorrent ........... 54 ‘Swarming’ theories ...................................................................................................... 54 Georges Canguilhem and the ‘self-organising’ organism ............................................. 57 The separate status of the human and the technical ................................................... 62 The preindividual: Metastability and techno-historical development. ........................ 65 The individual qua individual: Signification and ‘theory driven’ virtual method .......... 69 The OiNK community as a ‘transindividual collective’ .................................................. 75 Section 2: Monostable individuation and the global recording industry after WWII ....................................................................... 79 Chapter 3 – Organising recorded music consumption in 1959 and 1999: Mnemotechnics. ...................................................................................................... 80 Science, technology and recorded music after WWII ................................................... 80 4 Simondon, ‘Du Mode’ and standardised systems of production ................................. 86 Mnemotechnics and material culture .......................................................................... 92 The global-mnemotechnical system of the recording industry circa 1999 .................. 96 Chapter 4 – Monostable individuation: The global recording Industry as a ‘desiring machine’ ................................................................................................................ 105 Resolving the ‘excess’ of individuation: Socialised desire .......................................... 105 Monostable and metastable individuation ................................................................. 111 Producing desiring machines: The music industry ...................................................... 114 Collective desire and the digital .................................................................................. 121 Chapter 5 - Mnemotechnique and recorded music circulation: Retail and radio ....... 124 Retention: Mnemotechnics, cultural memory, mnemotechnical artefacts ............... 125 Mnemotechnique and interaction .............................................................................. 129 Shutting off mnemotechnique: The high street and the airwaves in the USA ........... 132 Intermezzo................................................................................... 143 Chapter 6 - The routinisation of the transindividual collective: Google and social networking ............................................................................................................ 144 Transindividual collectives and the internet ............................................................... 144 MySpace and Facebook .............................................................................................. 147 Google: Monostabilising the internet ......................................................................... 149 Google’s dominance of torrent search ....................................................................... 152 The routinisation of searching for recorded music on Google ................................... 159 Google, server farms and music video: YouTube and Vevo ....................................... 163 Section 3: Decentralised information sharing and the private ‘Scenes’ of home computing ........................................................ 168 Chapter 7 – ‘The Scene’ and P2P before 2005 .......................................................... 169 Beyond the history of ‘technology’ ............................................................................. 169 5 The early history of The Scene: Active interaction, decentralisation and the free flow of information ............................................................................................................. 171 BBS Culture: Quality, encryption and efficiency ......................................................... 174 Standards of quality and ‘netiquette’ on elite boards ................................................ 176 Encryption and efficiency ............................................................................................ 180 ‘The Scene’: 1999-2004 ............................................................................................... 186 The Scene pyramid ...................................................................................................... 188 P2P exclusion from The Scene pyramid 1999-2004 .................................................... 191 Etree.org: Establishing the standards for lossless audio trading ................................ 198 Chapter 8 - (Private) BitTorrent and the post-2004 P2P filesharing architecture ....... 203 Algorithms in situ ........................................................................................................ 204 Private and public trackers: Communication between clients and trackers .............. 209 The private BitTorrent filesharing structure ............................................................... 213 Scene and invite-only trackers: Encryption and inviting core members .................... 217 Power Users, ‘secret forums’ and friends on the web: Moving up the private tracker chain ............................................................................................................................ 222 The ratio system: Using statistics to encourage participation .................................... 229 Initial incentives. Deeper incentives. .......................................................................... 233 Section 4: OiNK - The making of a