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Cultural Policy in the Digital Age: the Emergence of Fans As Political Agents in Copyright Discourse

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Cultural Policy in the Digital Age: the Emergence of Fans As Political Agents in Copyright Discourse Cultural Policy in the Digital Age: The Emergence of Fans as Political Agents in Copyright Discourse Presented by Devin Beauregard M.A. Candidate - 3731527 Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the MA in Public Administration Master’s of Arts Faculty of Public Administration The University of Ottawa ©Devin Beauregard, Ottawa, Canada, 2011 Beauregard ii Table of Contents Abstract: ...................................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgement: ....................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Research Problem .................................................................................................................... 8 Intellectual Property in the Digital World ....................................................................................... 11 The Ambivalent Fans ....................................................................................................................... 16 Commodifying Social Practices ...................................................................................................... 18 General Research Question.............................................................................................................. 24 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature ........................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................... 39 Producers/consumers: The Discursive Economy of Cultural Production ........................................ 39 A Genealogy of Copyrights and Cultural Production ...................................................................... 47 An Archaeology of Fan Practices .................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 4: Methodological Framework .................................................................................................. 59 Research Design .............................................................................................................................. 60 Sample ............................................................................................................................................. 63 Collection of Data ............................................................................................................................ 64 Method of Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 66 Limitations ....................................................................................................................................... 68 Ethical Considerations ..................................................................................................................... 69 Chapter 5: Fandoms Under Review: Conceptualizing Fans ................................................................. 71 Fandomonium: Fandoms Under Review ......................................................................................... 75 Boldly Going Where No Fan has Gone before: the Star Trek Fandom ........................................... 75 Still Flying: The Firefly Fandom ..................................................................................................... 76 When Harry Met Sally: The Harry Potter Fandom ......................................................................... 77 Chapter 6: The Emergence of Fandoms – A Brief History .................................................................... 78 Stranger Than Fiction: The Modern Fandom is Born ...................................................................... 78 From Fanzines to E-zines: The Emergence of the Internet and Digital Technologies .................... 80 Mobilization and Activism .............................................................................................................. 83 Chapter 7: Mobilizing the Troops – Fan Communities and Activism .................................................. 88 Free Forming: Why Fan Communities Mobilize ............................................................................. 88 Fan Communities: Rehabilitating Social Perceptions ..................................................................... 91 Beauregard iii Communities Within Communities: The KAG and StarFleet ......................................................... 94 The Social Fan: Fans in the Broader Social Community ................................................................. 98 The Big Damn Fandom: Firefly Today, Gone Tomorrow ............................................................. 100 When Browncoats Attack: Fan Mobilizations ............................................................................... 104 Contentions with Media Producers ................................................................................................ 107 Looking Forward: The Future of the Firefly Fandom ................................................................... 110 Chapter 8: Transformative Works – Fan Productions ........................................................................ 113 Fan Websites & Copyright ............................................................................................................ 113 Police State: Fan Policing .............................................................................................................. 119 Production Value: When Producers Take Notice .......................................................................... 122 The Legality of Fan Productions ................................................................................................... 127 Fan Advocacy: The Organization for Transformative Works ....................................................... 131 Chapter 9: Fan Communities and the Use of Copyrighted Material .................................................. 134 Underground Production ............................................................................................................... 134 Defying Class: Fanart Versus High Culture .................................................................................. 137 File Sharing and Bootlegging ........................................................................................................ 143 The Cultural Productions of Fans .................................................................................................. 146 The Commodification of the Star Trek Culture ............................................................................. 149 Chapter 10: Cultural Policy and Agency in the Digital Age ................................................................ 155 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................................... 163 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................. 168 Appendix................................................................................................................................................... 183 Beauregard iv Cultural Policy in the Digital Age: The Emergence of Fans as Political Agents in Copyright Discourse Abstract: Cultural policy theory operates on a division between producers and the public. Dualisms, such as producer/consumer – or, in more nuanced circles, the triadic relationship of consumer/producer/owner – have had a structuring effect on the way in which we envision cultural policy theories. At its core, the producer/consumer dualism implies subjectivities – that is to say that it defines positions in relationships between socio-political actors/actresses. At the governmental level, such clear-cut subject positions are perceptible beyond theories, entering into the actual practice of policy-making to the point where certain policies structure the notion of the public (or consumers), and the producers and/or owners. Copyright law, for instance, represents a good example of such an ideational construct. As a form of cultural policy, copyright law seeks to define the rights of producers with regards to their productions. Consequently, this thesis aims at exploring the forms of agency that develop and challenge both the practice and theoretical constructs of cultural policy. Two aspects command us to question anew these boundaries, one based on contemporary social and technical transformations (the rise of the digital age), and one based on cultural practice (in this case, those of fans and fandoms).Borrowing from theories of cultural studies and Foucauldian approaches to discourse analysis, this thesis explored the emerging discourses surrounding fans and their use of copyrighted material via the internet. Putting emphasis on three fandoms that have had marked histories of fan activism and fan production via the use of copyrighted material – Star Trek, Firefly, and Harry Potter – this paper investigated fans’ use of copyrighted material in developing fan cultures and as a vehicle for their discursive practices. These cases illustrate how fans have challenged the established repertoires of subjects
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