This is an overview of my PhD research....time to reflect and plan for what is next!

1. Tales from the underground:
Exploring unauthorised file sharing
communities on the Internet
Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen
Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems
Griffith University - Brisbane, Australia

2. My Doctorate
Doctoral study completed in 2010 (2006-2009) in the School of ICT,
Science, Engineering, Environment & Technology Faculty
Title: A Critical Ethnography of an Online File Sharing Community: An
Actor-Network Theory Perspective of Controversies in the Digital Music
World
Participant in the Doctoral Consortium at QUALIT 2006 - Brisbane,
Australia
Participant in the Doctoral Consortium at ICIS 2008 - Paris, France
Title: Digital Rights Management and the Online Music Experience
Participant in the Junior Faculty Consortium at ICIS 2010 - St. Louis, USA

3. Graduation!

4. Publications
Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. and Nielsen, S. (2012) Insights from the Underground: Using ANT to Understand Practices
and Motivations for File Sharing in Online Communities, European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), Barcelona,
Spain, 11-13 June - Winner of the Claudio Ciborra award for Innovation in Research
Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. and Nielsen, S. (2012) The High Seas (C’s) of piracy in Information Systems: Cost,
convenience and choice, Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Geelong, Australia, 3-5 December
Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. & Nielsen, S. (2011) Underground Online Music Communities: Exploring Rules for
Membership, Online Information Review, Vol. 35 Issue: 5, pp.699 - 715
Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L. & Nielsen, S.(2010) Collaboration in Online Communities: Reconceptualising the Complex
Problem of Unauthorised Music File Sharing, ACIS, Brisbane, Australia 1-3 December
Beekhuyzen, J., Nielsen, S. & von Hellens, L. (2010) The NVivo Looking Glass: Seeing the Data Through the Analysis,
QualIT Conference - Qualitative Research in IT & IT in Qualitative Research, Brisbane, Australia 29-30 November
Beekhuyzen, J. & von Hellens, L. (2009) Reciprocity and Sharing in an Underground File Sharing Community, 20th
Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Melbourne, Australia, Monash University, 2-4 December
Beekhuyzen, J. & von Hellens, L. (2008) How does Technology Influence Online Music Access and Use? A Taxonomy of
Empirical Studies, 19th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), Christchurch, New Zealand, 3-5 December.
Beekhuyzen, J. (2007) Putting the pieces of the puzzle together: Using NVivo for a literature review, QualIT2007 -
Qualitative Research in IT:, Wellington, New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington, 19-20 November

5. Background to PhD
Continuation of Smart Internet Technology Cooperative Research Centre
project (2004/2005) into media use and digital technologies that aims to
develop guidelines for the user-centred design of new digital rights
management systems (DRMs).
A continuum from
downloading to
purchase

6. Publications
Singh, S., Jackson, M., Waycott, J. & Beekhuyzen, J. (2006) Downloading vs Purchase:
Music industry vs consumers, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, Berlin /
Hiedleberg (reprinted from the First International Conference on Digital Rights Management
2005)
Waycott, J., Jackson, M., Singh, S. (2005) Digital Rights Management and consumers’
use of music: An activity theory perspective, Proceedings of QualIT 2005, Brisbane,
Australia, 25-27 November
Jackson, M., Singh, S., Waycott, J. & Beekhuyzen, J. (2005) DRMs, Fair Use and Users’
Experience of Sharing Music, DRM 2005 - Fifth ACM Workshop on Digital Rights
Management, Virginia, US, 7 Nov 2005
Beekhuyzen, J., von Hellens, L., Morley, M, and Nielsen, S.H. (2004) Searching for a
methodology for Smart Internet Technology Development, Proceedings of the Twelfth
International Conference on Information Systems Development, Melbourne, Australia,
August 25-27

7. My Doctoral Studies
Explore motivations for file sharing on the Internet - those that
sometimes buy and sometimes file share - see Lessig 2004
Reconceptualise file sharing “piracy” and participants/users
Focus on music downloading as a cultural activity
Downloading, uploading, sharing in online social spaces that
challenge authority - in general, and in the context of online
communities (Roswell)
Unauthorised? Authorised? Difficulties in researching...
Latest developments in Portugal and growing trend to distribute
authorised music releases by musicians (and other artists) -
124,191,862 legal downloads in first 6 months - 31% of all BitTorrent

8. Conceptualising Music Distribution
Conceptualisation of music distribution systems

9. Design/Methodology/Approach
Actor-network theory (Callon, Latour & Rip, 1986)
Critical approach (Habermas, 1984, Ngwenyama and Lee, 1997, Klecun,
2004, Stahl 2008) - roots in IS research in the Marxist view of society as
a series of class struggles (Orlikowski and Baroudi, 1991).
Ethnographic methodology (Thomas, 1993) - systems, structure,
technology and rules of unauthorised (illegal?) file sharing
Empirical: in-depth interviews with 16 file sharers, 6 musicians & 8
music recording industry experts, focus groups, covert observations over
120 days of a surreptitious online community - Roswell (Pseudonym)
Roswell - 1200+ members (20 000+) - strong rules for active
participation - strongly ordered and not adhoc

10. Findings
Internet has robust architectures for participation - file sharing
communities that manifest social interaction create affordances for an
ever-expanding number of people to share their experiences (and
their content)
Underground file sharing communities are sophisticated systems for
organising music within subcultures on the Internet
Granted membership is meritocratic
Members are encouraged to develop habits of active participation and
contribution to the community (sharing or uploading new content)
Community has strong conventions for participating/contributing e.g.
naming and ripping new uploads, obfuscating personal identities

11. Findings
Cost - physical mediums (CDs) too expensive, compared to digital music ($1.69-$2.19/track from iTunes).
Retail price of a digital single track is equal to the comparable cost of a track on a CD, however the two are
not commensurable - no costs for packaging, few costs for distribution and storage of the digital artifact.
Bagchi et al. (2006) argue individuals may feel that the injustices inflicted by the manufacturers justify piracy
Convenience - easier to use than online stores like iTunes (Alderman 2001) - less barriers to the music
transaction, such as the need for a credit card. Interoperability is important, and technical competence
influences the choice of unauthorised file sharing system (or even paid music system). Smith and Telang
(2009) suggest that giving away content in one channel can stimulate sales in other channels. Gran & Molde
(2010) - downloaders are 10 times more likely to purchase
Choice – frustrated that the largest online music store (iTunes) is limited - no Beatles & AC/DC etc. - “long
tail” (Anderson, 2006), whereas sources that provide access to unauthorised content enable unlimited access
to almost any digitally recorded music, often at a very high quality. If a legitimate source is not available to
purchase, they look for other sources.
!

12. Findings
Interesting...
New content is unpredictable and dynamic - exists temporarily
Members contributing to a collective consciousness while developing
their own culture and language
Motivated by appeal of unpredictability (similar to radio? social
media?), ability to collaborate with peers
Evaluate value through consideration of cost, convenience and choice
Many file share without malicious motivations, they do it simply
because they can (and because they enjoy it :))

13. Practical Implications
Too often, we impute an automatic link between illegal behaviors and ethics and forget that
the criminalization of ‘deviant acts’ transforms and reduces broader normative meanings to
legal ones. Once a category of behaviors has become defined by statute as sanctionable, the
behaviors so-defined assume a new set of meanings. These may obscure the alternative
nuanced images that guide those who engage in such behaviors, those who enforce the laws
and norms that prohibit” (Thomas, 2005).
Insights into the ‘black box’ of file sharing and underlying ideologies
Understanding of sophisticated underground file sharing communities
assists further development of legitimate online music systems to
appeal to the large number of individuals involved in music file
sharing communities and file sharing in general
Ethical considerations and challenges of studying illegal behaviour -
of interest to the IS community

14. Social Implications
Misuse of the concept of “piracy” to describe all who engage in
file sharing as criminals does disservice to those who are shapers
of the digital revolution - and is often inaccurate according to the
common meaning of the concept - not well defined
Understand practices within a subculture that is regarded as
deviant from the mainstream and illegal “moral panic”"[a]
condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to
become defined as a threat to societal values and
interests” (Cohen, 1973: 9)
Contributes to the discussion and policy formulation on file
sharing

15. Contributions
Develop theory for studying illegal behaviour in IS - IS moving beyond
organisational boundaries - covert observations
Contradicts community literature?
Only known ethnography investigating underground music file sharing
communities using a qualitative interpretive/critical approach
Underground communities have not been systematically studied
previously
Addresses lack of research literature
Novel in applying ANT to a context not previously applied

16. Contact
Thank you!
e: jenine@griffith.edu.au
w: www.iinet.net.au/~beek
t: @jeninebeek
b: diaryofatechgirl.wordpress.com