Sharing Publics: Democracy, Cooperation, and Free Software Advocacy in France by Jelena Karanovic A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology / Institute of French Studies New York University September 2008 ______________________________ Susan Carol Rogers © Jelena Karanovic All Rights Reserved, 2008 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my mentor, Susan Carol Rogers, whose sustained guidance, care and critical attention have accompanied this project throughout. I am also most grateful to Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsburg who have consistently encouraged my project and oriented me in the sister domains of science and technology studies and anthropology of media. Herrick Chapman offered intellectual resources and support throughout my graduate years at the Institute of French Studies. Sally Engle Merry's generous advice has sharpened the final versions of my dissertation and oriented my ongoing work. Extended conversations about free software and anthropology with Gabriella Coleman have provided invaluable collegiality, stimulation, and pleasure. Ayako Takamori commented on several chapters, as well as helped me elaborate and frame my ideas in conference papers, grant proposals, and job letters. Shay David, Joseph Reagle, Samir Chopra, and Marc Perlman, and Anita Chan generously shared their ideas on free software with me and commented on my work. The following friends and colleagues gave helpful criticisms and encouragement on one or more chapters of the dissertation: Allison Alexy, Tobias Reu, Rene Pierre Gerrets, Don Selby, Joseph Doyle Hankins, Galeet Dardashti, and the participants in Thomas Bender's dissertation writing seminar. I am also indebted to my parents who have helped me emotionally and financially more times than I could have imagined when I started graduate school. iii This dissertation is dedicated to them. Thanks also to my sister who reminded me how to keep our common affinities despite great distances and all-too-rare visits. My partner, Zach Poff, nudged me to persist and set an inspiring example by timely and graciously completing his own projects. Two research grants made my fieldwork possible. National Science Foundation provided the Dissertation Research Grant while the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., provided the Chateaubriand Research Fellowship. Write-up support was given by the New York University's Dean's Dissertation Fellowship. I am grateful to these organizations for their support. Finally, I am profoundly indebted to members of April, Parinux, and Aful, and many other friends and free software advocates that I met in the fieldwork. My dissertation could not exist without their tremendous generosity, patience, time, and enthusiasm. I take responsibility for the interpretation offered here. iv ABSTRACT This dissertation examines how culture helps shape the way people use and understand new information technologies. It is based on twenty months of online and offline ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2004 and 2005 among French voluntary associations that promote free software. I argue that, energized by the worldwide accessibility of the internet and informed by developments in US-led global communications policy, free software advocates in France articulate their cause in terms of long-standing French debates about civic solidarity and stewarding of the common good, investing these with renewed significance in relation to processes of EU integration, post-Cold War “free market” globalization, and transformations of consumer advocacy. More broadly, through a focus on mobilization around global digital networks, my study contributes to understanding of (culturally diverse) ideas about cooperation, technical expertise, democratic engagement, and globalization. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii ABSTRACT v LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF APPENDICES x INTRODUCTION: GROUNDING DIGITAL NETWORKS ETHNOGRAPHICALLY 1 Globalization 5 Digital technologies and new media 13 Cultural meanings of digital technologies in France 22 Field sites and research methods 57 The organization of this study 71 CHAPTER 1: “FREE SOFTWARE IS FOR FREE MEN”: VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND FREE SOFTWARE ADVOCACY IN FRANCE 74 Tracking free software advocacy through French voluntary associations 79 Who is free software for? Forms of commitment in FS advocacy 89 Means and meanings of engagement 107 Conclusion 115 CHAPTER 2: SOFTWARE FREEDOM, THE RIGHT TO COPY, AND COPYRIGHT IN FRANCE 117 Revising the social purpose of gratuité 120 What does software freedom mean? 125 Access to digitized contents: Commoditization and free circulation 139 vi Making societal choices: A cacophony of voices 145 Conclusion 150 CHAPTER 3: “YOU FIND THE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS THAT YOU HAVEN'T ASKED” 152 Socializing enthusiasm 153 Collaborative vigilance (veille) 155 Public valuation (mise en évidence) 161 How can veille materialize offline? 168 Conclusion 176 CHAPTER 4: EUROPEAN CITIENS AND PRIVILEGED WITNESSES: ACTIVISM AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENTS IN EUROPE 179 Patents, software and European economic development 185 EU decision-making and the Constitutional Treaty 203 Conclusion 210 CHAPTER 5: “DEMATERIALIZING THE REPUBLIC”: REDEFINING PUBLIC GOOD AND PRIVATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP 215 A vision of e-administration 215 Free software as a metaphor for adequate state approach to innovation and entrepreneurship 221 Frameworks of interoperability and virtues of cooperative sharing 225 Envisioning successes and purposes of free software advocacy 231 Divergences in cooperative sharing 234 Conclusion 245 vii CONCLUSION 247 APPENDICES 257 BIBLIOGRAPHY 262 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Minitel 1, introduced in 1982. 33 Figure 2. Offensive advertisement, paid by the union of music producers SNEP, threatening internet users with fines up to 300,000 Euro and 3 years in prison for illegal downloading of music. 118 Figure 3. Photo “David and Goliath / giant, goliath, behemoth, monster: someone or something that is abnormally large and powerful.” 179 Figure 4. Imagery of Adèle P. 216 ix LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: “Newbie's questions” 257 Appendix B: “Passing” as an absent member 258 Appendix C: One narrative of refund 260 x INTRODUCTION: GROUNDING DIGITAL NETWORKS ETHNOGRAPHICALLY In the early 2000s, online sites and services have become ubiquitous within French business and mass media. In many ways, this development has upset long- established habits and expectations. An air of experimentation has permeated many businesses, for example, as they try to find a profitable balance between offering online services for a fee and those offered free of charge. French newspapers have accorded ample space to stories about successful efforts to develop and market digital intangibles elsewhere, whether among Brazilian music labels, the US market for online music services, or online markets offering items from networked fantasy games. Court cases, pedagogical guidelines, and polemics surrounding file-sharing online further suggest that much remains open-ended with respect to acceptable uses of such goods and services. In France, penalties for illegal downloading were raised up to 300,000 Euro in fines and three years of prison. At least one accused downloader was acquitted in 2004 after he claimed that his 488 downloaded films were “private copies.”1 Others have been sent to prison and paid tens of thousands of Euros in fees. In 2005, French consumer advocacy groups proposed a provisional, 3-5 year framework for negotiations, arguing that within that period, successful business frameworks balancing free and paying services would emerge, online commerce would become stabilized, and these developments would, in turn, appease then current antagonisms between “downloaders” (internautes) and “copyright holders” (majors). 1 “488 films gravés et le copieur est relaxé.” Libération. October 14, 2004. 1 These antagonisms entail struggles over meanings attributed to networked digital media, as well as over appropriate legal frameworks and material conditions for their use and development. In the context of such uncertainties, on what terms are high-speed digital networks becoming a familiar part of daily life for a growing proportion of French? More broadly, how do culture-specific proclivities act to highlight or obscure specific aspects of software, digital media, and global communications networks? I address these questions through an ethnographic study of French voluntary associations that promote free software. Free software aspires to ensure the rights of accessibility, modification, and copying to any user, as opposed to proprietary software, whose modification and distribution is restricted by copyright. So, free software guarantees to its users some important rights, which are ordinarily reserved for authors via copyright laws.2 The “success” of free software developers in creating high-performance and robust computer programs has in the past ten years catalyzed a re-thinking of well-established frameworks of ownership and property rights in the US (Lessig 1999; Kelty 2005)3 and brought to the fore new “networked” conceptualizations of the information economy (Weber 2004; Ghosh 2004) and innovation policy (Benkler 2002, 2006; Love and 2 For a more elaborated definition, see “The Free Software Definition,” accessible online at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html, last accessed 30 January 2005. 3 Scholars in the humanities have examined the political and cultural foundations of US copyright law