Semear é preciso, viver não é preciso: economia do compartilhamento e dispersão de sementes digitais através de redes P2P

Abstract

The present thesis deals with file sharing in the age of the Internet. We will analyze aspects of sociality in a file sharing community specialized in the art of cultivating, sowing, preserving of digital files (described as “digital seeds”). Digital seeds are basically any digitized computer file (for example, a movie, a song, a book, a software etc.) that needs to be virtually planted until it blooms and can be shared over the internet by P2P (peer-to-peer) networks. In this sense, this thesis is a narrative about a relational experience that we experienced (from 2008 to 2017) in a community of cyber seeders named Oasis (fictitious name). Oasis is a closed community that has about 60,000 registered members (until early 2017). Our methodological perspective led us to follow erratic digital paths that make up the unique dynamic that constitutes what we call "sharing economy". In this way, we try to elucidate the movement of digital seeds through the senses of morality credited by the "file sharers" who particularly attend that community. Indeed, in this thesis we report practices and experiences that make up what we identify as "ethics of sharing", a sort of "spirit of sharing" that acts (through a symbolic alchemy) in the transformation of digital files or goods into gifts and honors ready to be dispersed through cooperative and decentralized sharing networks. In other words, a digital seed can best be presented in the form of a "living thing"; that is, as a seed of life laden with riches, dignities and hopes, exactly for establishing the understanding that cultural productions are artifacts produced to be freely dispersed as a "common good." Finally, we highlight how this cyber ecology presents itself as a project that intends to ensure the implementation of a protection network of digital seeds threatened by forgetfulness and neglect.