Downloading Communism: File Sharing as Samizdat in Ukraine

Abstract

This article explores the cultural meanings of file sharing and other forms of digital media piracy in Ukraine. Ukraine, the second most populous of the former Soviet republics, had been named as one of the ten priority countries with unacceptable piracy rates. Western governments and commercial associations have lobbied intensively to present piracy in straightforward terms as a crime. In contrast, the author argues that file-sharing practices in Ukraine reflect distinctive features of its cultural heritage. Two factors are particularly important here: the Soviet Union's disregard for international copyright norms and the cultural tradition of Samizdat that arose as a form of cultural resistance to the state's monopoly on conventional reproductive methods. Samizdat was closely tied to the emergence of a modern Ukrainian national identity. An analysis of current Ukrainian attitudes toward piracy, focused on users of the popular Muzon.com music-sharing site, shows that these factors influence attitudes toward the legitimacy of international copyright measures. Many Ukrainians distrust the imposition of controls on reproduction of information and resent the coercive tactics used against local pirate producers on behalf of Western copyright holders. Parallels between file sharing and Samizdat are particularly instructive because both take place from one individual to another along an anonymous chain, across national boundaries and without the control of copyright holders. In both cases, the political meaning of the action comes from participation in the process itself, as much as from the material being shared.