The Moralities of Intellectual Property: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Brokers in China

Abstract

This study investigates the moralities of intellectual property developed in the context of an underground network of Internet-based amateur translators in China. These translators are dedicated to unofficially subtitling and disseminating unauthorised US television programs and movies to Chinese audiences. I examine how translators have developed new moralities through their subtitling practices in the terrain of media technology. I explore how the subtitle community exists as a moral enterprise and how morality is constructed through subtitlers' disciplined practice, volunteer work and devotion to the media programs. I argue that regardless of their different opinions, subtitlers moralise their activities based on the conviction that Chinese youth and young adults want more knowledge, in spite of the state's media monopoly, and that fulfilling this need is a public good. Such a morality honours an unofficial moral code that is parallel to official state policy.