shifting rampant reproduction and digital democracy: shifting landscapes of music production and...

8122019 Shifting Rampant Reproduction and Digital Democracy Shifting Landscapes of Music Production and lsquoPiracyrsquo in Bolhellip

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Rampant Reproduction and DigitalDemocracy Shifting Landscapes ofMusic Production and lsquoPiracyrsquo inBolivia

Henry Stobart

This article examines the transformation of recorded music production and distribution

in Bolivia that has occurred in response to the rise and growing democratisation of

digital technology especially over the past decade It charts the collapse of the large-scale

record industry due both to high levels of piracy and to its gradual loss of technological

advantage and its replacement by a host of small-scale producers many of which target

emergent low-income markets The dynamics of lsquopiratersquo production and distribution are

examined including the key role of the video compact disc in the escalation of music

piracy It is suggested that national imaginaries as well as economic factors have

underscored Peruvian domination of the large-scale production of pirated music for the

Bolivian market In recent years however dramatic reductions in the cost of

reproduction equipment and optical discs and in turn vendor profits are leading to

more localised and smaller-scale forms of domestic pirate production The downscaling

and localising of both lsquolegitimatersquo and lsquopiratedrsquo record production might be seen to

democratise the music industry giving Bolivian consumers access to an unprecedented

diversity of budget-priced recorded music However the longer-term implications of this

situation for musiciansrsquo livelihoods and particular musical genres remain unclear as

does state policy with regard to the protection of cultural resources and copyright

Keywords Music Piracy National Imaginaries Record Industry Indigenous Music

Video Digital Technology Video Compact Disc Bolivia

Henry Stobart is Senior Lecturer in the Music Department of Royal Holloway University of London He has

published widely on the music of the Bolivian Andes His former work primarily focused on rural indigenous

perspectives but more recent research stresses wider cultural politics and the role of new digital technologies

His books include the monograph Music and the Poetics of Production in the Bolivian Andes (Ashgate 2006) and

several edited volumes The New (Ethno)musicologies (Scarecrow 2008) Knowledge and Learning in the Andes

Ethnographic Perspectives (co-edited with Rosaleen Howard Liverpool University Press 2002) and Sound (co-

edited with Patricia Kruth Cambridge University Press 2000) Correspondence to Henry Stobart RoyalHolloway University of London Egham Surrey TW20 0EX UK Email hstobartrhulacuk

Ethnomusicology Forum

Vol 19 No 1 June 2010 pp 27 56



A striking characteristic of the so-called lsquodigital agersquo is the almost effortless capability it

provides to create multiple identical copies a phenomenon that has fundamental

implications for the status of the copy and copyright1 Until recently mass

reproduction was the prerogative of the owners of costly equipment acquired through

high-capital investment the so-called manufacturing industries In the case of therecord industry this technological advantage went hand in hand with legal

mechanisms such as copyright and agreements ensuring control over products

artists promotion and distribution (Leyshon 2001 52) But with the rise of digital

technology and the democratisation of replication this permits the record industryrsquos

technological advantage is evaporating All around the world artists are increasingly

producing their own recordings often with relatively cheap digital equipment and

using them sometimes in conjunction with creative new forms of distribution to

promote live concerts and generate other income streams In turn large-scale record

labels with high overheads and expensive products are in many cases becomingprogressively more redundant According to several commentators the record

industry as we have known it is in terminal decline (Knopper 2009 Kusek and

Leonhard 2005 Lebrecht 2008) Yet seemingly paradoxically lsquomusic itself is in fact

more popular more diverse and is being listened to by more people than everrsquo (Gordon

2008 117)

In the lsquoglobal northrsquo2 the woes of the record industry reflect on the one hand its

partial loss of control over replication especially in the form of MP3 music files

circulated via the Internet and on the other the end of the compact disc (CD)

bonanza This highly priced format had enabled certain areas of the record business to

reap vast profits not only from new productions where lsquothe payoff for a successfulalbum was spectacularly lucrativersquo (Gordon 2008 117) but also from the re-release at

little cost to themselves of classic LP recordings3 CD sales rose exponentially from the

mid-1980s peaking in 2000 when an estimated 942 million units were sold in the

United States alone (Joyce 2006) Since this time the CD market of the north has

progressively declined in part giving way to digital downloads (Davies 2008 Joyce

2006) However in many parts of the lsquoglobal southrsquo where Internet connectivity

remains limited the period since the turn of the millennium (and in Chinarsquos case

somewhat earlier) has in contrast been marked by an explosion in the production

replication marketing and availability of music discsYet the optical disc format that has taken precedence in poorer regions of the world

has often been the video compact disc (VCD) a cheap technology that enables video to

be digitally recorded on to CD discs (Langlois 2009 Morcom 2008) Introduced in

1993 initially by Philips and Sony the industry realised that the VCD would quickly be

eclipsed by the greatly superior capacity and picture quality of the DVD4 which was

shortly to be released on to the market Thus rather than further develop this

essentially doomed new format in the lsquoglobal northrsquo Philips and Sony decided to launch

it in China a decision that was to reap huge profits due to their control over the VCD

chip patent (Wang 2003 50 1) According to R Todd King in China the VCD achieved

the fastest and deepest growth of any technology in history yet it was treated as lsquoa

28 H Stobart



technology that was fit for a poor cousin in laggard developing countries instead of

cutting edge economiesrsquo (quoted in Wang 2003 50)

Key to the VCDrsquos phenomenal growth was the low cost of reproduction equipment

Chinese manufacturers discovered how to make VCD players by converting CD audio

players resulting in immense expansion of profits and production so that by 1998some 500 manufacturers were operating in China alone (Wang 2003 51) With such

developments in large-scale manufacturing the impact of the Asian VCD explosion

gradually began to resonate in other parts of the global south such as Latin America

especially from the early years of the new millennium But another key characteristic of

the VCD which has accompanied it on its global expansion has been its intimate

association with unlicensed copying or so-called lsquopiracy rsquo In such regions as Latin

America lsquopiracy rsquo was already highly developed well before the arrival of the VCD but I

wish to suggest that the rampant reproduction of recorded music and film since the

arrival of this (increasingly DVD-compatible) digital video format has been of a new magnitude It may also be seen to have particular consequences for musicrsquos production

distribution and reception

Music lsquopiracy rsquo has aroused a great deal of debate in recent years especially in the

context of music file-sharing over the Internet (Knopper 2009 Lessig 2004) Discussion

often polarises into viewing lsquopiracy rsquo either on the one hand as insidious criminal

activity that threatens musiciansrsquo livelihoods musical creativity and the production of

culture or on the other as a legitimate and democratic struggle against an excessively

powerful record industry that for too long has dominated musical culture and

creativity constraining both the agency of musicians and consumer access Both

perspectives as Rudi Moffat has pointed out tend to claim lsquothe mantle of resistancersquo asaggrieved parties defending themselves against the superior forces of respectively lsquoa

veritable tsunami of technology-driven piracy rsquo or lsquoglobal corporate dominationrsquo

(Moffat 2008 1) While both positions clearly include elements of truth neither

adequately represents the complexity of lived social relations or the diverse dynamics of

musical production and consumption in its broadest sense of which for example

commodified music forms just one aspect Also these opposing discourses in which

particular actors are respectively cast as heroes or villains tend to invoke forms of

language and imaginaries that further polarise subject positions and challenge the

potential for mutual understanding and cooperation The use of the word lsquopiracy rsquo inreference to unlicensed copying is itself a good example as it lsquoconjures images of sea-

faring blood-thirsty brigands who terrorise the innocent and are devoid of moral

scruples and links them to their supposed [terrorist] cousins who shoot down

civilian airliners today rsquo (Story Darch and Halbert 2006 72 after Govil 2004)

But lsquopiracy rsquo may also carry positive connotations The individuals involved in

facilitating access to unlicensed music at greatly reduced costs are sometimes presented

as the Robin Hoods of the digital age (cf Ochoa and Yudice 2002 6) My use of the term

lsquopiracy rsquo to convey the idea of unlicensed copying does not carry any implicit value

judgement Rather than supporting any particular subject position my intention is to

use ethnography to highlight the dilemmas faced by the various actors and interest

Ethnomusicology Forum 29



groups be they musicians record producers copyright enforcers royalty payment

societies state officials or pirate producers suppliers and vendors Indeed in most

cases my encounters with these various individuals led me to experience a sense of

empathy for their diverse predicaments

Bolivia A Striking Case study

This paper considers the case of Bolivia a land-locked country at the heart of South

America which is typically identified as the poorest (per capita) most unequal and

most indigenous country of the region According to the World Bank it also

possesses one of the most informal economies of the world (67 of total economy)

second only to Georgia5 Bolivia provides a striking case study given the almost

complete collapse of its large-scale and long-established national record industry

and exodus of the transnational labels due to the effects of piracy6 The first part of

the essay charts this process and shows how musical production is now in the hands

of a mass of small-scale low-budget and largely informal labels Their releases are

often aimed at the tastes of an emergent low-income and more indigenous market

and prices compete with those of pirated products Ubiquitous piracy means that

sales scarcely recoup production costs and recordings are increasingly funded by the

artists themselves and primarily serve to attract live engagements The paper then

focuses on the dynamics of recorded music piracy in Bolivia which has among the

highest levels in Latin America probably akin to those of Peru for which the

International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) estimated 2008 figures of 98

(IIPA 2009 249)7 But unlike for example Mexico or Peru Bolivia has not been alarge manufacturer or exporter of pirated music Instead much of the pirated music

consumed in the country was imported from Peru even though the original

recording was often produced in Bolivia Drawing on the testimonies of lsquopiratersquo

vendors and suppliers principally in the Bolivian highland cities of Sucre

Cochabamba Potosı La Paz and the Peruvian border town of Desaguadero I

examine the shifting economics and politics of circulation It is argued that although

economic dominance and nationalist imaginaries have underscored Peruvian control

of the Bolivian market for pirated music dramatic reductions in the cost of

Chinese-produced and Taiwanese-produced reproduction equipment and raw materials are leading to increased localisation of production in Bolivia This

growing decentralisation competition and challenge to Peruvian suppliers

especially since the emergence of the VCD format has led to reduced costs for

consumers massive volumes of disc reproduction and the adoption of alternative

market strategies

It is notable that the government of lsquoindigenousrsquo president Evo Morales which was

inaugurated in January 2006 and has huge popular support (gaining over 64 of the

vote when re-elected in December 2009) has made no significant attempt to

confront music software or book piracy to date However the rise of piracy and

collapse of the large-scale music industry date from well before Moralesrsquo tenure and

30 H Stobart



need to be viewed in broader historical context In particular the various phases of

neo-liberal policies since the mid-1980s have been seen to have exacerbated

inequality favoured foreign interests reduced state legitimacy and ultimately ignited

the social movements that swept Morales and his Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)

Government to power (Kohl and Farthing 2006) Thus the growth of piracy may inpart be seen to reflect social conditions that denied majority access to knowledge

and cultural resources (cf Story Darch and Halbert 2006) and a political climate in

which many Bolivians came to feel that laws were unjust and favoured the rich (Gray

Molina 2008 120)

The research for this paper forms part of an 11-month project (September 2007

August 2008) based in the Bolivian city of Sucre which focused on originario

(indigenous) music video production cultural politics and music piracy in the context

of the Morales Government (the theme of a forthcoming book)8 My discussion here is

largely confined to the broader dynamics economics and practices of piracy that haveaffected almost every area of the music business

Radical Transformations Boliviarsquos Record Industry

First piracy imposed itself and then technology Just imagine what happens whentechnology changes We had been working intensively over 30 years to keep aheadof technology to keep up to date with global sound system technology etc Thensuddenly new digital technology appears At first it didnrsquot look as though it would

have much impact but sure enough it [did] and left us totally buried in the ground

(Laureano Rojas founderowner of Lauro record label interview 24 January 2008)9

There is no long term future for the Bolivian record industry (Eduardo Iban ezpresident of the Association of Record Producers of Bolivia ASBPROFON and

founderowner of Heriba record label)10

Piracy has been widely blamed for the near-complete collapse of Boliviarsquos large-scale

lsquolicitrsquo music recording industry and for the exodus of the multinationals from the

country Recording industry profits in the country in 1995 are estimated to have been in

the region of US$20 million

11

While the three main national labels

DiscolandiaLauro and Heriba enjoyed around US$2 million of these profits the lionsrsquo share

(US$18 million) went to the multinationals operating in the country During the 1990s

these included EMI Music BMG Warner Music Universal Music Sony Music Leader

Music and Santa Fe Records Levels of cassette and VHS piracy were already

considerable in the mid-1990s but according to Andres Lopez (formerly of Sony

Music) the country rsquos 1999 economic crisis escalated piracy levels from around 65 in

1998 to 85 89 in 199912 In the years around the turn of the millennium the national

and international music industry jointly organised a series of campaigns to combat

piracy including television advertisements newspaper articles raids on street vendors

using hired police officers and the mass destruction of pirated discs The industry also




lobbied for the revision of the 1992 copyright law (law 1322) pressured the government

to tackle copyright infringement and censured the state for treating piracy as a lsquosocialrsquo

rather than a lsquolegalrsquo issue13 They also brought several cases against pirate producers to

the courts but the defendants although caught red-handed and admitting guilt

escaped punishment due to legal loopholes They were able to walk free and entirely unpunished because the two-year maximum jail term for copyright infringement (law

1322) is subject to judicial pardon (according to the Blatmann code of penal

procedure) and because fines are not included among the penalties

Despite the creation of a national intellectual property service (SENAPI) in 1999 and

unfulfilled plans to overhaul copyright and create a special police force dedicated to

enforcement (proposed by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights in 2001)14 the

government demonstrated little motivation to combat piracy and respond to music

industry pressure This may be attributed in part to the political unpopularity of

enforcement the issues it raises concerning social inequality and its relatively low priority given the political turbulence of the early years of the millennium which

included the so-called Water Wars (2000) and Gas Wars (2003) By 2003 Bolivian

recording industry profits were estimated to have shrunk to around US$06 million15

and all of the major international labels had closed their Bolivian offices and left the

country Both Lauro and Heriba had also ceased trading and in this same year

Discolandia downsized to 20 staff (from 150 in 1995) Today Discolandia a long-

established label that has just celebrated its 50th anniversary is the only major record

label still trading in Bolivia Nonetheless many small low-budget digital studios of

varying degrees of informality are active around the country recording local artists for

regional markets where the low cost of their original products often competes with

pirate prices By contrast the high overheads and the constraints of the formal sector

alongside a desire to exploit international markets and maintain high profits have

meant that the large-scale labels made relatively few concessions on pricing Instead

labels such as Discolandia have focused on the production of high-quality recordings

often incorporating glossy informative booklets which are aimed at exclusive niche

markets able to pay international prices but which are well beyond the budget of the

Bolivian majority

In short the large-scale record industry which formerly dominated the market

through technological advantage enabled by high capital investment has almostentirely vanished In its place we find a multiplicity of small-scale labels or home

studios that use low-cost digital equipment requiring relatively little capital invest-

ment16 As one Cochabamba-based vendor explained

Many groups [now] prefer to record with other labels There are currently labelswhich are not like Lauro Heriba Discolandia or even letrsquos say Sony Music They are not like these [large-scale] labels they are small labels that offer the capacity torecord their product at low cost Very low cost Because in truth with thetechnology that has now appeared a console a simple console with a computeris more than sufficient to get started and to have two good microphones one forthe instrument the other for vocals You donrsquot need any more than this to make a

32 H Stobart



studio And for a video production cameras and all these things are much cheapermaybe 500 dollars We are talking about a digital workstation which can createquality images and offer a product at lower costs Now all these situations can beoffered (Anonymous interview Cochabamba 24 January 2008)

This description of a small-scale home studio describes almost precisely theequipment used by the originario (indigenous) artistproducer Gregorio Mamani

whose work formed a central focus of my research and with whom I collaborated in the

production of several originario music videos Mamani hails from a rural peasant

community near Macha (see Figure 1) he is constantly constrained economically and

although a very well-known artist among low-income indigenous people of the region

he is almost unknown among the middle classes His work has been subject to high

levels of piracy against which he has long been an outspoken opponent However

piracy was also undoubtedly responsible for the international popularity of a VCD of

his music featuring his son the child star Vichito Mamani This piracy-generatedpopularity led the family to undertake concert tours of Peru Argentina and Bolivia in

2005 06 enabling Mamani to raise the modest capital necessary to set up a digital

studio While Mamanirsquos home studio and label (CEMBOL) is largely dedicated to

producing and promoting his own work a number of other labels primarily produce

the work of others

For example Cochabamba-based CG Records and Banana Records are both

established producers of originario musics and popular electronic genres such as

PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN

L a k e T i t i c a c a

LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz

Figure 1 Map showing principal locations mentioned in the text




cumbia for low-income regional markets17 They started out respectively in the late

1980s and early 1990s producing cassettes of regional styles for an emergent mass

market

Formerly we used to produce cassettes Well the people of the countrysideidentified more with their [own] music they purchased this music and didnrsquot buy pirated versions So in our case it was better to dedicate ourselves to the massmarket which was more indigenous as is the case in Bolivia than to addressourselves to the central market that was already occupied by Chayanne Luis Migueland those kinds of foreign music (Wilson Ramirez Banana Records interview

Cochabamba 6 March 2008)

This reported tendency for indigenous people to buy originals would now seem to be

less in evidence with the escalation of mass piracy following the arrival of VCD

technology Although original VCDs of originario musics are far more widely available

than are those of neo-folkloric and international genres consumed by the middleclasses Wilson Ramirez asserts that lsquoof every ten discs sold we sell one original the

pirates [sell] ninersquo The effects of piracy have led to the changing of contractual

agreements between labels and artists where a recording fee is only offered to the most

established and successful artists Other artists are required to pay the label to produce

their work (Banana Records I was told charges US$500) and may be responsible for

their own distribution Labels rarely produce more than 1000 or 2000 copies of a new

release as the window of opportunity for selling originals before the market is flooded

by thousands of pirated copies is often only a matter of days Coordinating single-day

release in all the major markets around the country has thus become a standard strategy to attempt to recoup production costs Few labels survive economically from the music

business alone most combining such work with other occupations or businesses For

example in addition to Banana Records which has grown increasingly unprofitable

Wilson Ramirez owns a radio station Ritmo originally set up to promote his

recordings and a successful bakery chain

A large proportion of small-sized and medium-sized studios might be described as

lsquoinformalrsquo as they neither pay taxes nor register recordings with performersrsquo or

composersrsquo rights organisations or with the national intellectual property service

(SENAPI) Although rights to compositions and recordings can now be registered quitesimply and cheaply originario artistscomposers and producers often believe that a

notated score is required (as was formerly the case) that royalties will not be

forthcoming and that registration will not halt plagiarism With the pro-indigenous

presidency of Evo Morales newly-created originario musiciansrsquo organisations have

begun to confront a perceived sense of exclusion and discrimination by the existing

music royalty collection societies controlled by middle-class artists Such moves which

are often presented as a lsquocultural revolutionrsquo reflect a desire to gain greater equality

recognition and legitimacy Certain small-scale labels have also sought out ways to

become lsquolegitimatersquo and move into the formal sector a widely held aspiration in

Boliviarsquos highly informal economy18 Indeed according to Wilson Ramirez many

34 H Stobart



apparently licit medium-sized and small-sized labels originally raised the capital

necessary to set up studios through piracy and some continue such practices

clandestinely19 He identified this shadowy aspect of the activities of many record

labels as a key impediment to mounting a unified campaign against piracy

From Vendors to Pirates

and from Audio to Video

For many vendors to whom I spoke selling recorded music was part of a lifelong family

trade that had begun with selling vinyl discs back in the 1970s or 1980s For example

Emilio a vendor in his late 50s who runs a stall beside the market in the centre of the

town of Sucre explained that he entered the business out of a love of music

For more than twenty years Irsquove dedicated myself to music something Irsquom really passionate about Irsquom really fond of music It is a fine thing to devote oneself to this

profession and to tell [you] how more than twenty years ago I began selling vinyldiscs that I imported from Argentina [in those days] there were only gramophones Then around twenty years ago vinyl discs [began to be] recordedonto cassette The cassette was at its zenith and you could make good money recording making [dubbed] recordings and selling vinyl discs too

At that time here in Bolivia there were also vinyl discs [produced by] variousrecord labels based in this country like Lauro Heriba and Discolandia which werethe largest companies And after some time unfortunately [vinyl discs]disappeared and a new type of music technology appeared that of the CDWell this was the motive for the disappearance of the lsquooriginalrsquo product this wasthe point of departure for the start of piracy But this is something that was not

born here in this country rather the technology that motivated piracy came fromabroad Today it is very difficult to stop but even so I say now is a good timebecause the only ones who benefited from the original product were the big recordcompanies based in this country (Emilio interview Mercado Central Sucre 20December 2007)

As is evident from this testimony shifts in technology have gradually led the business of

selling music almost necessarily and imperceptibly to take on illegal dimensions

lsquoWe are now being called piratesrsquo some retailers complained although they considered

that their work of selling music had in essence remained the same With the growing

availability of cassette technology from the early 1980s many vendors began to satisfy customer demand by recording music from vinyl LPs onto cassette tape As in many

other parts of the world this more compact and cheaper format with its portable

battery-powered reproduction equipment opened up a whole new series of popular

urban and rural markets for recorded music (Manuel 1993) Reduced equipment costs

and the lower capital required also led to the development of many new small-scale

production companies dedicated to local and niche markets (see also Ochoa and Yudice

2002 7) Bus and lorry cassette players now provided the soundtrack to any journey

and the portable radio-cassette player became a fashion accessory and status symbol in

even the most far flung rural communities even if rarely heard due to the high cost of

batteries (Stobart 2006 8)




The relatively high cost of original cassettes meant that in poorer areas it was

common for vendors to copy cassettes on demand Many consumers considered the

low fidelity of dubbed cassettes of little relevance as reproduction equipment was

often cheap low quality and poorly maintained Alongside small-scale dubbing by

local vendors large-scale cassette piracy (and VHS video piracy) gradually began togrow especially during the 1990s Thus cassette piracy in Bolivia was already highly

developed and organised with significant levels of production and investment well

before the widespread availability of digital technology For example a 1999

newspaper report cites examples of pirates using 60 interconnected recorders to

produce 120 cassettes every 10 minutes and industrial machinery capable of copying

music on to 200 cassettes in 5 minutes the equipment costing many thousands of

dollars20

In his testimony above it is notable that Emilio identifies the rise of lsquopiracy rsquo with the

CD rather than the cassette where as discussed below the CD has remainedassociated with the middle classes Besides the irony that the record industry initially

championed the CD as a means to circumvent cassette piracy (Manuel 1993 88) this

suggests that Bolivian vendors did not really view their small-scale cassette dubbing as

illegal or as lsquopiracy rsquo Nowadays vendors tend to be quite candid about their involvement

in piracy and whilst aware that it is illegal they rarely have reason to fear law

enforcement Indeed I have witnessed police officers browsing stalls of VCDs evidently

with purchase in mind rather than control (Figure 2)

Although previously available at very high cost CDs and CD players only began to

become common in Bolivia from around 1995 and then only among the urban middleclasses The arrival of this technology opened a window of opportunity for large-scale

CD piracy as it was not until several years later that computers with disc burners

became generally available and affordable While the audio CD is widely available in

many of Boliviarsquos major towns it has continued to remain largely restricted to middle-

class consumers and genres such as neo-folklore rock art music and international

musics By contrast among poorer sectors of the population especially those who

primarily consume originario genres and popular styles such as cumbia the seemingly

logical technological sequence from cassette to CD never really happened Instead the

move to digital technology involved a shift directly from audio-cassette to audio-visual

VCD format and more recently to DVD with the growing ubiquity of cheap multi-

format reproduction equipment Thus for many poorer Bolivians the arrival of digital

music has in effect meant the arrival of the music video a shift from audio to audio-

visual which in certain respects radically transforms the experience and ontology of the

music21 The release of the first originario music VCD in around 2003 alongside

dramatic reductions in the cost of reproduction equipment led this format to quickly

dominate the market22 It has now become almost unthinkable to produce a recording

for the popular indigenous market without video images In addition many lsquoclassicrsquo

recordings from the 1980s have been re-released with videos typically showing a star

who has aged by several decades miming instrumentalists quite different from those

36 H Stobart



heard on the soundtrack and young female dancers who may not have been born when

the music was recorded

The arrival of the VCD and increasingly in its wake the DVD also stimulated an

upsurge in levels of large-scale piracy using existing CD replication equipment This

was a response to a huge new market of emergent consumers among poorer more

Figure 2 A police of ficer examining a stall of pirated discs in the Mercado Campesino

(lsquoPeasant Marketrsquo) Sucre Bolivia with a view to purchase rather than to control

Source Photograph by Henry Stobart 2008




indigenous sectors of the population but also to expanding middle-class markets for

cheap and diverse forms of entertainment As elsewhere in the world piracy facilitates

access to a far broader range of entertainment and cultural resources than is possible via

formal regulated networks (Wang 2003 91) For example the variety of pirated

international music genres and films now available in Sucrersquos city centre would havebeen unthinkable in the 1990sThese include a wide selection of classic European art-

house films and offers to source non-mainstream items on demand Thus the lsquoaccessrsquo

aspect of piracy is by no means only about offering products at greatly reduced prices

As many educated middle-class consumers stressed to me the great lsquoadvantagersquo

(ventaja ) of piracy is that it offers cultural resources that formal regulated networks had

denied them in the past

The Economics and Politics of Circulation Mass Piracy and Peru

For the second part of this essay the focus shifts to the dynamics of large-scale

international piracy and in particular the domination of Boliviarsquos market for

pirated music by Peruvian producers To explore this theme we travel to the Peru

Bolivia border town of Desaguadero and examine the kinds of national imaginaries

and economic realities that sustained Perursquos albeit now declining control of this

market

Until recently much of the pirated music sold and consumed in Bolivia was supplied

by large-scale foreign producers According to a vendor consulted in Sucre much was

formerly smuggled into the country from Colombia and Paraguay23

But by December2007 when we spoke he estimated that some 70 of the pirated music discs sold in

the city were produced in Peru In the early years of the millennium distribution to

local Bolivian vendors was dominated by a relatively small number of dealers who

travelled to Peru to collect merchandise or acted as local agents responsible for

distributing shipments sent on long-haul buses Carlos a Cochabamba-based vendor

who openly labels his products El Super Pirata DJ (lsquoDJ Super Piratersquo) explained that

when he set up his business in around 2000 he was one of the first lsquosmall-scalersquo

(minorista ) CD pirates The use of computers presented little challenge to him thanks

to his training as a systems analyst At the time the market was apparently dominatedby a small number of lsquolarge-scalersquo (mayorista ) pirates

When I began this business there were only about four majors four large-scale

pirates who delivered their CDs everywhere They had their sellers who would take

letrsquos say 2000 CDs to one place [where the vendors] would choose what they

wanted and then take them to the next place In the day they would dispose of the

2000 CDs wholesale and in the night go to collect the money owed There were

four letrsquos put it at six [distributors] say I knew these people [but] nowadays these

guys have given up delivering wholesale because so many people have now bought

their own computer and can make copies [themselves] (Carlos interview

Cochabamba January 2008)

38 H Stobart



Vendors also told me how they used the mobile telephone numbers of distributors

based in La Paz or Desaguadero to order stock and sometimes despatched new Bolivian

releases to Peru for mass disc copying For example a vendor in Potos ı explained how

when a new VCD of Potosı-based Las Conquistadoras was released the distribution

network was used to send it to Peru where a new cover was designed and printed andthousands of copies of the disc burnt and sent back to Bolivia I sometimes heard large-

scale Peruvian producers (mayoristas ) presented as the real villains of piracy and lsquopoorrsquo

Bolivian vendors as victims of the system but the practice of actively sending new

releases by local artists to be copied in Peru might be seen to undermine this kind of

moral argument and implicate vendors as critical cogs in the piracy machine

The Bolivia Peru border town of Desaguadero situated near Lake Titicaca is a key

transit point for the passage of goods between these two nations many of them

surreptitiously smuggled by the many small-scale traders who flock in minibuses

trucks cars and coaches to the townrsquos three main market days each week Desaguaderowas already a well-established centre for the supply of pirated CDs and cassettes for the

Bolivian market in 2000 when as part of an anti-piracy campaign Oscar Prieto of

the Bolivian label Discolandia took part in an undercover operation aimed at exposing

the music piracy issue for a television documentary He travelled to Desaguadero

together with two journalists a television cameraman with a covert tie-pin camera and

two special police officers The group arrived on a Thursday evening and learned how

contraband rice sugar pasta gas and other products are smuggled from Bolivia into

Peru every night without any form of control According to Prieto the only products to

pass in the other direction from Peru into Bolivia were pirated CDs cassettes a few

plastic items and blankets But these blankets were in fact manufactured in Bolivia andtaken to Desaguadero or Juliaca to be relabelled with a Peruvian lsquotigerrsquo trade mark

before being shipped back into Bolivia and passed off as Peruvian products As Prieto

stressed this reflects a widespread and longstanding lack of national pride in home-

produced products where Bolivian consumers tend to opt for what they consider

lsquobetter made and more reliablersquo imported international goods and avoid lsquopoor quality rsquo

national ones

The following day the team wandered around Desaguaderorsquos Friday market and

pretended to be dealers wishing to purchase a large quantity of the CDs of the then

highly popular Bolivian neo-folklore groups Kjarkas Bolivia and Llajtaymanta Onestall claiming to be a distributor did not have the necessary quantity in stock but

offered to take them to the factory in exchange for a deposit to secure the deal On

receipt of a down-payment they were taken to the nearby village of Zepita a car

journey of around 15 minutes

We arrived there and in truth we entered a house of several floors which did notlook much from the outside but inside it was very comfortable with several largerooms where we came across a huge number of reproduction machines CDcopiers as well as for cassettes and we saw tables But it was incredible The tableswere full of CDs packed up ready to be taken to Bolivia to be distributed at a locallevel which they [organise] Well there we told them that we required two




thousand [copies] of one two thousand of another and a thousand of another wewanted five thousand units They said they could make them for us but that wewould have to wait until Saturday and they would deliver them directly to us inDesaguadero (Oscar Prieto interview 3 April 2008)

However back in Desaguadero the cameraman had the idea of taking some footage of the market with his large television camera which he had left in their lodgings After

seeking permission from the Peruvian police he started filming but the team was

recognised and their subterfuge exposed A group of angry lsquopiratesrsquo encircled them and

threatened to beat them up forcing the cameraman to hand over the film before the

police helped the team escape back over the border into Bolivia Only the footage from

the tie-pin camera survived to be shown on television Both Prieto and many

newspaper articles from the early years of the millennium compared large-scale music

pirates (mayoristas ) with drug barons who run violent mafia-like organisations and

have the wealth and power to corrupt and control the police and other authorities24

Illegal Aliens in Peru

With some trepidation I also made the journey to Desaguadero and Juliaca to

research piracy in April 2008 accompanied for safety by an art-student friend from

La Paz Julio Katari We attended the Friday market in Desaguadero and along with

vast numbers of Bolivian traders wandered across the border into the Peruvian part

of the town (Figure 3) No attempt was made to check our papers the border officials

were conspicuous only by their absence Once across the frontier we immediately

encountered scores of shops and stalls offering wholesale quantities of pirated VCDsfeaturing Bolivian artists including originario performers such as Gregorio Mamani

(Figure 4) Purchases were made using Bolivian currency to ease cross-border sales

and discs were supplied in small clear plastic bags that also enclosed a colour printed

paper cover sheet or la mina Discs typically sold for 2Bs (US$029) each or 120Bs

(US$017) for bulk purchases25 Although we encountered much small-scale surface

level smuggling as laden bicycle taxis and pedestrians constantly crossed the border

this is apparently minor compared with the large-scale smuggling that happens under

cover of darkness

One Peruvian vendor told me that she had taken up this trade a year ago havingpreviously run a stall selling hot food She considered that the profits from these two

economic activities were much the same and very limited lsquo just enough to feed the

family rsquo I also conversed with a vendor-supplier who had trained as a graphic artist

owned a permanent shop directly opposite the frontier and clearly worked on a much

larger scale He explained that there was still enough profit from his trade for him to

lsquoenjoy himself rsquo but that this had reduced dramatically compared with five years earlier

when lsquopiracy was the best business of allrsquo and prices were double or triple today rsquos Then

it was so lucrative that lsquoif one month you invested $1000 the following month you

would have $3000 or $4000rsquo whereas now lsquopeople just make enough to subsistrsquo He

directly identified this slump in prices with the arrival of the VCD format on the

40 H Stobart



market it had rapidly eclipsed the CD that alongside the cassette had offered immense

opportunities for large-scale pirates He observed (echoing Carlos lsquoDJ Super Piratersquo

above) that the market had formerly been cornered by a few large-scale outfits with the

resources to invest in very expensive mass reproduction equipment Five years earlier a

disc burner capable of copying 10 discs at a time apparently cost around $8000 but

when we spoke in 2008 the same equipment was retailing for about $600 In short such

equipment had become accessible to many more people greatly increasing competi-

tion and reducing the prices of copied discs26

Cover Story

The interior of this supplierrsquos shop included many shelves stacked with piles of colour

printed sheets created for particular music videos and films (Figure 5) The growing

tendency for vendors and local suppliers to copy their own discs has given rise to a new

trade in high-quality printed paper cover sheets (la minas ) which are an important

means of identifying products as discs are otherwise indistinguishable from one

another La minas can also help confer the illusion of quality and authenticity

To enhance this impression Peruvian lsquopiratersquo graphic designers often add bar codes

Figure 3 Friday market in the border town of Desaguadero View from the Peruvian side

of the frontier looking back into Bolivia





spurious technical information and even anti-piracy warnings to the new la minas they

create It is also notable that the artwork although typically incorporating elements

from the original cover or video images captured from the VCD itself is designed to

look different from the original and is often presented as a lsquospecial editionrsquo

(Figure 6ab) This contrasts with other parts of the world (and certain areas of the

Peruvian market) where pirates often favour artwork that is identical to and ideally

indistinguishable from the original

Some former large-scale producers and distributors of copied discs have now branched out into producing and selling covers for which high capital investment in

expensive printing equipment once again confers technological advantage Specialisa-

tion in the sale of la minas has also developed in Bolivia and one such La Paz-based

vendor his shop hidden away behind curtains in a market informed me that he pays

his suppliers around 025Bs (US$0035) for each colour printed sheet and retails it for

about 05Bs (US$007) His stock was imported via Desaguadero but mainly printed in

Lima because in his view the quality of printing in La Paz lsquois not very goodrsquo once again

highlighting widespread Bolivian low self-esteem as regards national manufacturing In

my own experience however the printing offered in La Paz is both high in quality and

economical Although capacity and willingness to participate in piracy may also be

Figure 4 Bolivian vendors selecting bulk quantities of VCDs (for resale in Bolivia) at a

supplierrsquos street stall in Desaguadero Peru

Source Photograph by Julio Katari 2008

42 H Stobart



significant I wish to suggest that national values and imaginaries have been decisive in

Perursquos hold over the Bolivian pirate disc and la mina market

Border Crossings and National Imaginaries

As elsewhere in the world economic factors such as price and currency differential tax

law production cost and availability of raw materials mean that there is often money to

be made (or lost) through trading or smuggling goods across national borders But

such boundaries also involve the interplay of national and cultural imaginaries they

can be fantastical staging posts where the meanings and value of goods are transformed

as if by magic Indeed the way Desaguaderorsquos illegal activity is shrouded in secrecy risk

Figure 5 Shelves piled with colour printed paper cover sheets (laminas) to accompany

pirated VCD discs





Figure 6 (a) Zura zura original cover (lamina ) of an originario music video (VCD)

produced by Gregorio Mamani for Carnival 2008 (b) Zura zura new cover for a pirated

version of Gregorio Mamanirsquos 2008 Carnival video that appeared a few weeks after the

release of the original It is presented as a lsquospecial editionrsquo and includes bogus technical

information a bar code and an anti-piracy warning lsquoDONrsquoT BUY PIRATED GOODS

BUY AN ORIGINAL Prohibited the reproduction expression or loan of this item and its

radio broadcast or public performance all rights of the worksrsquo authors and of the record

producer reservedrsquo

44 H Stobart



unpredictability and the promise of riches has striking parallels with Andean beliefs

about acquiring illegitimate wealth through pacts with the devil (Absi 2005 Taussig

1980) But here I wish to focus on some of the mutual imaginings that underlie and

shape the flow of goods between Peru and Bolivia such as the widespread and deep-

seated conviction among Bolivians that Peruvian (or other internationally) producedgoods are of better quality than their own This leads retailers to validate a productrsquos

quality and command higher prices by claiming (sometimes falsely) its Peruvian or

Argentine origins and to the paradoxical practice (noted above) of re-labelling

Bolivian blankets as Peruvian But an obsession for imported goods is often

accompanied by a deep mistrust of the places these goods come from as Peter

Geschiere (2001 44) has observed for the case of Cameroon Similarly Bolivians

commonly stereotype Peruvians as devious opportunist and dishonest and associate

them with criminality indeed periodic robberies and muggings by Peruvians tend to

be greatly exaggerated in the popular imagination27

Set against widespread discourses of Bolivian national economic and technological

inferiority are those of moral superiority and cultural wealth often identified with the

country rsquos indigenous character and heritage Bolivian self-identification as creators of

culture is reflected in the way Peruvians (and Chileans) are accused of appropriating

Bolivian musics dances and styles of dress and claiming them as their own For

example the strong nationalist associations of the diablada dance with Bolivia have led

to controversy around claims that it originated in Puno Peru This ongoing dispute was

ignited again in February 2009 with the provocative posting of video images of Punorsquos

diablada on Youtube as Diablada Peruana 1000 Peruana (lsquoPeruvian Diablada1000 Peruvianrsquo)28 A torrent of often abusive comments claims and counter-claims

about the origins and ownership of the dance ensued The following example evidently

from a Peruvian provides a flavour

What is it that hurts you ignorant dirty and lazy Bolivians What hurts is that we

are superior to you Concern yourselves about something else The diablada isPeruvian you ignorant lot [ ] and more than that itrsquos from Puno 100

Retards29

This highly charged language highlights some of the effects of the rise of heritage and

identity politics in recent years Conflict has undoubtedly been further exacerbated by UNESCO proclaiming Boliviarsquos Oruro Carnival with which the diablada dance is

intimately identified as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity

in 200130 Notable in the above quotation is the stereotyping of Bolivians as inferior

where common racial typecasting as indios tercos y cerrados (lsquoclosed-minded stubborn

Indiansrsquo) invokes a more indigenous aspect to the population (Fiorella Montero Diaz

personal communication 2009) Nonetheless since the presidency of Evo Morales

(since 2006) and the rise of indigenous politics more generally Bolivian identification

with indigeneity has often become a matter of national pride identity and a source of

power (Canessa 2006) often attracting transnational support and alliances with

amongst others Peruvian indigenous groups




In the light of such complex mutual nationalist imaginaries it is striking how the

mass piracy of Bolivian music for the Bolivian market has been located in Peru31 This

seems all the more curious given that most of the raw materials and equipment used by

Peruvian pirates enter the country from Bolivia Pirate disc wholesalers in Desaguadero

explained that Chinese-produced and Taiwanese-produced blank discs and discburning equipment are shipped into the Chilean free port of Iquique and travel

overland by lorry to Peru via Desaguadero32 They identified the Bolivian commercial

centre of Oruro as a key transit point and presented this trade as legal However

according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA 2007 364)

significant quantities of contraband travel into Peru from Iquique avoiding border

duties and official 2005 Peruvian customs statistics reported that Perursquos largest

importer of blank media had moved to Iquique thereby perhaps enabling large-scale

Peruvian pirates to undercut Bolivian prices

In other words Peruvian music piracy might be seen to have acted as a kind of service industry for the Bolivian market The raw materials equipment and

original products enter Peru from Bolivia and then after accruing value are

returned to Bolivia for marketing Although the economics and politics of such

circulation might appear illogical there is nothing new about exploiting low-cost

raw materials from perceived economically and technologically lsquoweakerrsquo nations to

make products that can be sold back to such nations at a profit In this context it

should be stressed that Perursquos population (just under 30 million) is three times

larger than Boliviarsquos and its Gross Deometic Product (GDP) is over six times

greater (250 billion to Boliviarsquos 44 billion)33 This has clearly contributed to Perursquos

dominant position as regards capital investment industrial development andcontrol of markets34 Self-identification as a technologically lsquoweak rsquo nation has been

particularly pervasive in Bolivia and although disastrous for the development of

the nationrsquos industries may be seen to serve the interests of the many traders of

contraband goods on both sides of the frontier Indeed this might be seen as a

symptom of Boliviarsquos exceptionally informal economy where money is to be

made even if in very small quantities from the circulation of goods along

trajectories shaped by national imaginaries

Townspeople of Desaguadero told me that as the townrsquos economy is almost

entirely dependent on smuggling and black-market practices over-zealous borderofficials are not tolerated and attempts to crack down on smuggling are met with

fierce resistance However the roads on either side of the frontier are often policed

by customs officials and certain Bolivian vendors reported how the confiscation of

the discs they had purchased had almost put them out of business Thus in order

to minimise risk vendors rarely carry more than 100 500 discs at any one time

and make regular weekly trips (Jordan 2008) Control of the route into Bolivia

intensified after an attempt was made by the Bolivian Government to clamp down

on gas smuggling in 2008 Bolivia is rich in natural gas which accounts for around

19 of GDP (and over 50 of exports) but some 30 of the 10-kg cylinders sold

in Bolivia at subsidised prices were being smuggled to Peru where they could be

46 H Stobart



sold for almost five times the price In June 2008 a ceremony to mark the

inauguration of a military garrison in Desaguadero to control smuggling was met

by a violent mob of townspeople which hounded the military detachment out of

town before ransacking and burning the customs offices Although perhaps only

temporarily this led to tighter control of the roads leading to and fromDesaguadero in turn making the journey to purchase Peruvian-produced VCD

and DVD discs more hazardous for Bolivian vendors and dealers

Localising Production and Landscapes of Piracy

Dramatic reductions in the cost of disc-reproduction equipment alongside the

growing risks involved with travelling to Peru have led many vendors to abandon

purchasing discs in Desaguadero One DVD vendor in La Paz who for many years had

travelled to Desaguadero every Friday to purchase stock listed the advantages of relying

on local Bolivian producers It saved her a day of lost sales 40Bs (US$6) bus fare to

Desaguadero and the risk of confiscation by customs officials Greater customer

satisfaction could also be achieved as faulty DVDs could be returned to the producer

and replaced However she also stressed that her overall profits have fallen

dramatically a few years earlier she had paid a wholesale price of 10Bs (US$136) for

each DVD and resold it for 20Bs (US$272) When we spoke in April 2008 the

wholesale price was 5Bs and the retail price 8Bs meaning a profit of only 3Bs (US$040)

per DVD She attributed this to the recent economic downturn and rise in the cost of

food like many other Bolivians at this time she blamed this on mismanagement by the

Morales Government rather than on wider global forces Despite a general trendtowards localising pirate production in Bolivia variations in price region markets and

individual economic circumstances as well as access to multiple disc burners (which

were very rare in Sucre in 2008) mean that such localisation is not universal and

pirated music from Peru continues to enter the Bolivian market35

More generally there is considerable variation in the pricing of pirated DVDs VCDs

and CDs dependent on format genre quality of presentation vendor competition

region and locality within a particular town or city In cities such as Potosı and Sucre it

was common in 2008 for both pirated and original VCDs (by regional originario artists)

to be sold for the same standard price of 10Bs (when presented in a plastic case)36

Many local originario (indigenous) artists based in these towns whose work is typically

destined for a popular indigenous migrant audience own stalls in poorer market areas

Such artists sometimes travel vast distances around the country to distribute their discs

to vendors personally This enables them to police the piracy of their work and build

relationships of mutual dependence and trust with vendors who often share similar

cultural backgrounds In short I wish to argue that lsquosocial and cultural intimacy rsquo can

work against piracy37

This helps to explain why for example lsquooriginalrsquo VCDs are widely available in the

poorer peripheral market areas of Sucre whereas paradoxically none are offered in the

more upmarket city centre with its beautiful colonial churches and university






heterogeneity they stress a diversity of regional local urban rural or ethnic identities

they offer contrasting music aesthetics and values and they often reflect internal

national issues and struggles There is also a youthful aspect to such developments not

only are young people more at home than their elders with digital technologies but

with over 35 of Boliviarsquos population under 15 years of age and a median age of under22 years immense potential for individual agency in small-scale music production lies

ahead40 Despite the near complete demise of Boliviarsquos large-scale record industry it

appears that the overall number of recordings being released has increased as have the

sectors of the population now consuming such media It is now commonplace for low-

income consumers to own a sizeable collection of cheap VCDs although low disc

quality frequent faults and the mediumrsquos intrinsic fragility mean that many quickly

become unusable People sometimes contrasted the throwaway and ephemeral quality

of music VCDs which tend to be lsquowatchedrsquo a few times for their visual novelties with

their multiple lsquolisteningsrsquo to the more robust audio cassette a format that remainsimportant to the originario music market Thus in the shift from analogue audio

(cassette) to digital audio-visual (VCD DVD) music-reception habits aesthetics and

priorities have also transformed For example the rise of the VCD music video was

according to some consultants directly responsible for the growth in popularity of

originario charango songs eclipsing previously dominant electronic genres such as

cumbia However this may also in part be attributed to the key role played by charango

songs in the pro-indigenous election campaign and landslide victory of Evo Morales in

December 2005 and to the rise of indigenous politics more generally Thus in certain

respects technological developments have moved in parallel with and may even haveunderscored political ones

While considerable growth is evident in low-budget recordings releases of new high-

quality recordings for middle-class markets appear to have declined For example

many internationally touring neo-folklore groups have abandoned releasing music for

the domestic market instead restricting CD sales to concert tours in Europe and Japan

Other artists notably some of those specialising in rock and popular electronic musics

have chosen to view pirate vendors as the new distributors or promoters selling

original recordings to vendors for resale or handing them over free of charge for mass

replication and circulation as also documented for the case of techno brega in Belem

Northern Brazil (Lemos 2009)41 As in many other parts of the world recorded music

appears to be acquiring a primarily promotional role rather than having a direct

income-generating function According to this model recordings serve as a form of

lsquovisiting cardrsquo and artists gain income from live performance and other related

activities In some cases Bolivian artists pay lsquopiratesrsquo to replicate their work which they

then distribute themselves or even pay larger-scale national pirates with monopolies

over particular markets a monthly fee to promote their work (Jordan 2008) In other

words lsquopiratesrsquo have come to exploit many of the same market strategies that lsquolicitrsquo

record producers and distributors formerly used to control the market and to turn

particular recordings into hits




For many Bolivians to whom I spoke music piracy was presented in terms of access

to knowledge and culture and related to book and software piracy on which the

national economy and education system are highly dependent In this context it is

hardly surprising that successive governments have dragged their feet in the face of

ongoing pressure to step up copyright enforcement from international intellectualproperty organisations such as the IIPA and the Business Software Alliance This also

helps explain why governments might have chosen to view piracy as a social issue rather

than purely a legal one (a criticism levelled at the government in certain newspaper

articles supporting the intellectual property industries) In Bolivia failure to enforce

copyright seems to be less an issue of weak local-level bureaucracy as Mertha (2005

137) has suggested for the case of China than a lack of will at state level copyright is a

low priority especially given the low levels of intellectual property exports42 Given the

complexities of current Bolivia US relations and the loss of US bargaining power

through Boliviarsquos expulsion from the Andean Trade Preference Act external pressureseems unlikely to increase Bolivian copyright enforcement in the near future43

Nonetheless it is possible that internal dynamics developed from a desire to protect

control and develop indigenous intellectual property (as detailed in the new national

constitution ratified by national referendum in 2009) may prove more consequential

Indeed it is common to hear Bolivian vendors express concern to protect national

cultural production and certain (lsquopiratersquo) vendor unions have sought to become

legitimate distributors entering into contracts with artists However their attempts to

work more formally and on a larger scale with music producers have often been dogged

on both sides by cultural differences and a sense of mutual distrust As one well-known

composer and music producer put it

It was an ideal proposal but it never worked because obviously we are talking aboutpeople who have lived all their lives from informal work In other words they neverpay anyone a penny never pay taxes live from the work of others and are notdisposed nor are going to become disposed to change this (Oscar Garciainterview La Paz 3 April 2008)

Conversely vendor union representatives complained to me that the producers had

wanted to dump thousands of out-of-date and second-rate recordings on them which

they would then be unable to sell It remains unclear how much such initiatives topromote legitimate distribution will shape the future landscape of Bolivian recorded

music marketing and whether and in what ways the state might intervene to protect

and promote national cultural production Vendor unionsrsquo attempts to support

national production have found it difficult to control their members and to achieve

agreement with other unions as well as to confront competition from non-unionised

lsquopiratersquo traders But it is also clear that heavy-handed enforcement is likely to be

counter-productive and given the increasingly democratised character of piracy to

lead to considerable hardship among the most vulnerable sectors of the population

The rampant reproduction of recorded music brought about by cheap digital

technology and piracy has radically transformed the Bolivian music business

50 H Stobart



bringing benefits for some but also hardship and even disaster for others Artists were

divided about the impact of these changes most condemning piracy while welcoming

the new opportunities provided by the digital revolution While for some piracy was

lsquolike the cancer of music as there is no curersquo for others it was simply part and parcel

of the global shifts in technology which offer both new opportunities and new challenges and which require new strategies It is worth remembering that despite

such seismic shifts in the landscape of recorded music most Bolivian artists (even

some of the best-known regional singer songwriters) have always needed to combine

music with other forms of economic activity and for the majority this was no

different before the rise of piracy

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the many musicians record producers vendors lsquopiratersquo suppliers and

others involved in the production registration consumption and policy regardingmusic in Bolivia and Peru who have generously given their time towards this research

Due to the sensitivities surrounding aspects of this business I have often preserved

anonymity Nonetheless I wish to express gratitude to Julio Katari who accompanied

me on the journey to Peru Susanna Rance for her friendship and hospitality in La Paz

and Oscar Prieto of Discolandia who in addition to several extended interviews kindly

allowed me to make a photocopy of his collection of press cuttings relating to piracy

The Museum of Ethnography and Folklore (MUSEF) La Paz especially Varinia Oros

and director Ramiro Molina have also been wonderfully supportive of this research

Thanks to the anonymous reviewers and to Stephen Cottrell and Hettie Malcomson fortheir generous feedback on earlier drafts of this essay Finally I gratefully acknowledge

the support of the British Academy (wwwbritacacuk ) and the UK Arts and

Humanities Research Council (wwwahrcacuk )

Notes

[1] As Kusek and Leonhard (2005 45 6) observe lsquosince a digital copy of a media object is exactly

like the original but does not in any way deplete it or remove it from further use one can

hardly compare this to the world of physical goods where the use or possession of a product

usually removes the possibility of someone owning the very same productrsquo Lessig (2004 146)has also noted how every use of the Internet produces a copy thereby leading content to

become ubiquitous and has critiqued the way copyright ownersrsquo control has expanded as

each copy is regulated by existing laws designed for physical property

[2] I use the highly unsatisfactory terms lsquoglobal northrsquo and lsquoglobal southrsquo with reluctance to

highlight global inequalities as regards access to technology levels of poverty and

infrastructure The implications of other terms such as lsquoDeveloped Worldrsquo or lsquoThird

Worldrsquo seem even more problematic

[3] Arguably this also stimulated a retrospective cultural turn in the form of an industry-

induced fashion for the music of earlier decades the past becoming less lsquoa land to return to

in a simple politics of memory rsquo than a lsquosynchronic warehouse of cultural scenariosrsquo

(Appadurai 1996 30)

[4] Alternatively known as lsquodigital video discrsquo or lsquodigital versatile discrsquo






[22] Wilson Ramirez of Banana Records claims to have released the first VCD of originario music

in around 2002 This production entitled Cha rsquo llando sus Exitos de Oro Walter amp Segundina

(lsquoToasting their Golden Hits Walter amp Segundinarsquo) features popular charango huayn o songs

performed by Walter Aguilar and Segundina Aira The picture quality is poor as Ramirez

also stressed to me but the production by this popular duo was an immediate hit Like many

other VCD productions (and pirated editions) of originario music the cover incorrectly presents the disc as a DVD

[23] A 2004 newspaper article notes that pirated merchandise from Colombia entered Bolivia via

Desaguadero and goods from Paraguay via the Chaco region The development of these

international piracy network is dated to the year 2001 (lsquoEn los puestos callajeros solo se

venden piratas de DVDrsquo La Razo n 13 June 2004)

[24] Comparisons between disc piracy and drug traf ficking are widespread See for example the

Motion Picture Associationrsquos study Optical Disc Piracy v Illegal Drug Traf fi cking (October

2005)

[25] The Bolivian currency is the Boliviano In April 2008 UK pound100 was equivalent to

approximately 15 Bolivianos and to US $200

[26] Our Peruvian journey also took in a brief visit to the city of Juliaca a 2-hour journey by local bus from Desaguadero skirting the shores of Lake Titicaca which many Bolivian

vendors had identified as a key centre for pirate production According to Oscar Prieto of

Discolandia everything in Juliaca is bamba (lsquofakersquo or lsquoadulteratedrsquo) lsquoit is the business city

but itrsquos said to be the centre where one is totally swindled utterly ripped off It is fatal rsquo

However we quickly gained the impression that Juliaca was just one of many towns

producing pirated discs even if it had been more important in the past While certain

vendors in Desaguadero mentioned purchasing stock in Juliaca it was Lima that they

characterised as lsquothe mega-centre of piracy rsquo

[27] For example when my bag was stolen on an overnight bus travelling between La Paz and

Sucre several people immediately attributed the theft to Peruvians

[28] The use of stylised diablada dress by Perursquos entrant for Miss Universe 2009 also incited angerfrom Bolivians including insistence that she should be disqualified for plagiarising Bolivian

culture (see also Cordova 2009)

[29] Youtube Diablada Peruana 1000 Peruana Available from wwwyoutubecomwatchv

5raRzefOY9s (last accessed 16 July 2009) A few months later this cliprsquos title was changed to

Diablada 100 peruana como el pisco (lsquoDiablada 100 Peruvian like pisco rsquo [a Peruvian

brandy])

[30] This example also highlights the Internetrsquos potential for inflaming nationalist hostilities its

relative anonymity enables the exchange of offensive language that would probably be

avoided in face-to-face encounters

[31] Other forms of illicit production such as the faking or counterfeiting of global brands of

clothing are widespread in Bolivia But low self-esteem for national manufacturing is againevident in the way that producers attach counterfeit global brand names to products for the

Bolivian and Brazilian markets and lament that consumers would reject their high-quality

products if sold under their own label (Kothari and Laurie 2004 226)

[32] The small clear plastic bags (costing around 0001Bs each) in which each pirated disc is

placed with its printed colour la mina were said to be sourced in the same way

[33] See CIA The World Factbook Available from wwwciagovlibrarypublicationsthe-world-

factbookindexhtml (last accessed 10 December 2009)

[34] Perursquos relative economic supremacy may now be on the wane given that Bolivia has

weathered the 2008 09 global financial crisis better than Peru or any other Latin American

country With estimated growth in GDP of 61 in 2008 and 40 2009 the Bolivian

economy has in fact survived the global economic downturn better than many any other

parts of the world (Weisbrot Ray and Johnston 2009 7)




[35] Economic incentives remain for some vendors to make the journey to Desaguadero as VCD

discs produced in La Paz with good quality colour printed la minas wholesale at around

170Bs compared with as little as 110Bs in Desaguadero Jordan (2008) also gives details of a

vendor family in El Alto (La Paz) who abandoned selling childrenrsquos shoes for the more

lucrative business of marketing pirated music discs Initially the family burnt their own discs

but then as the costs were identical and it saved time and effort they opted for weekly visitsto Desaguaderorsquos Tuesday market Although this contradicts the testimonies of my own

consultants according to Jordan the number of traders travelling to Desaguadero continues

to grow

[36] However in these places it was also typical to market three Peru-derived pirated VCDs in

small plastic bags for 10Bs

[37] Morcom (2008 268 89) highlights some of the problems with self-distribution a theme I

will consider elsewhere as part of a discussion of strategies to combat piracy

[38] This in turn reflects how patterns of consumption underscore class and ethnic hierarchies

[39] For example in lsquoMusic Piracy Ten Inconvenient Truthsrsquo the International Federation of

Phonographic Industries (IFPI) asserts lsquoPiracy is not caused by poverty Professor Zhang of

Nanjing University found the Chinese citizens who bought pirate products were mainly middle or higher income earnersrsquo IFPI Press Of fice London 31 May 2007 Available from

wwwifpiorgcontentsection_news20070531html (last accessed 23 July 2008)

[40] The CIA World Factbook Available from wwwciagovlibrarypublicationsthe-world-

factbookgeosblhtml (last accessed 10 August 2009)

[41] Celebrated as an alternative music industry model where copyright becomes irrelevant the

techno brega phenomenon consists of (lsquopiratersquo) street vendors copying and selling thousands

of low-priced CDs to promote massive weekend lsquosound systemrsquo parties at which artists and

sound system owners generate considerable income (Bollier 2006 Hegg 2007) Although in

many respects attractive this model is clearly likely to be more effective and beneficial for

some genres artists and contexts than for others for example it provides no income stream

for composers[42] However Mertha (2005 226) observes that although Chinarsquos local-level bureaucracy was

ineffective at protecting the International Property Rights (IPR) interests of Hollywood and

Microsoft for more immediate and present priorities such as population control or the 1983

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak it could be very ef ficient

[43] See for example Kathryn Ledebur lsquoObamarsquos Bolivia ATPDEA Decision Blast from the Past

or Wave of the Futurersquo Andean Information Network 11 August 2009 Available from

httpain-boliviaorg (last accessed 10 September 2009)

References

Absi Pascale 2005 Los ministros del diablo El trabajo y sus representaciones en las minas de Potos ı La Paz Bolivia Programa de Investigacion Estrategica en Bolivia

Appadurai Arjun 1996 Modernity at large Cultural dimensions of globalization Minneapolis MN

University of Minnesota Press

Badani Ruız Javier 2007 Discos Un paseo por el vinilo y el CD La Razo n La Paz Bolivia 30

December Available from wwwla-razoncom (last accessed 10 June 2008)

Ben-Atar Doron 2004 Trade secrets Intellectual piracy and the origins of American industrial power

New Haven CT Yale University Press

Bigenho Michelle 2002 Sounding indigenous Authenticity in Bolivian music performance New

York Palgrave

Bollier David 2006 The rise of Tecno-Brega or how to build markets on top of social commons

Available from httponthecommonsorgcontentphpid920 (last accessed 9 July 2009)

54 H Stobart



Canessa Andrew 2006 Todos somos indigenas Towards a new language of national political

identity Bulletin of Latin American Research 25 (2) 241 63

Cordova Ximena 2009 Contextualising the Diablada of Oruro Paper Presented at the Latin

American Music Seminar Institute for the Study of the AmericasInstitute of Musical

Research University of London 21 November

Davies Rodrigo 2008 CD sales dive Analysts say 2008 could be the worst year ever for CDs BBCRadio 6 Music Available from wwwbbccouk6musicnews20081128_cdsalesshtml (last

accessed 9 July 2009)

Geschiere Peter 2001 Witchcraft and new forms of wealth Regional variations in South and West

Cameroon In Powers of good and evil Social transformation and popular belief edited by Paul

Clough and Jon P Mitchell 43 76 New York Berghahn Books

Gordon Steve 2008 The future of the music business How to succeed with digital technologies

2nd edn New York Hal Leonard Books

Govil Nitin 2004 War in the age of pirate reproduction Sara Reader 378 83 University of

California San Diego Communications Department Available from httpcommunication

ucsdedungovildocssarai04pdf (last accessed 14 October 2008)

Gray Molina George 2008 State-society relations in Bolivia The strength of weakness In

Unresolved tensions Bolivia past and present edited by John Crabtree and Laurence

Whitehead 109 24 Pittsburgh PA University of Pittsburgh Press

Hegg Jens 2007 Techno Brega and the end of copyright as we know it Available from http

jensheggblogspotcom200711techno-brega-and-end-of-copyright-as-wehtml (last accessed

30 July 2009)

Herrera Ricardo 2003 Discolandia seguira apoyando lo nacional El Deber Santa Cruz Bolivia

23 December Available from wwweldebercombo (last accessed 14 October 2008)

International Intellectual Property Alliance 2002 Special 301 report Bolivia Available from http

wwwiipacomrbc20022002SPEC301BOLIVIApdf (last accessed 11 December 2009)

International Intellectual Property Alliance 2007 Special 301 report Peru 2 February Available

from wwwiipacomrbc20072007SPEC301PERUpdf (last accessed 13 July 2009)

International Intellectual Property Alliance 2009 Peru Country report 4 March Available from

httpwwwiipacompdfIIPAAndeanAPTAfilingforUSTR final03062009pdf (last accessed

13 July 2009)

Jones Eric 2007 In-between music The creation of Cholo identity in Cochabamba Bolivia Master

of Music Thesis University of North Texas

Jordan Wilfredo 2008 El negocio de CD lsquopiratasrsquo se yergue entre la informalidad y el contrabando

Available from httpwilfredojordanblogspotcom200812el-negocio-de-cd-piratas-se-yergue

html (last accessed 24 July 2009)

Joyce C Alan 2006 US music sales 1975 2005 Vinyl cassettes and CDs Swivel Preview Available

from wwwswivelcomgraphsshow4146447 (last accessed 9 July 2009)

Knopper Steve 2009 Appetite for self-destruction The spectacular crash of the record industry in the

digital age London Simon and Schuster

Kohl Benjamin and Linda Farthing 2006 Impasse in Bolivia London Zed Books

Kothari Uma and Nina Laurie 2004 Same bodies different clothes An agenda for local

consumption and global identities Area 37 (2) 223 7

Kusek David and Gerd Leonhard 2005 The future of music Manifesto for the digital music

revolution Boston MA Berklee Press

Langlois Tony 2009 Pirates of the Mediterranean Moroccan music video and technology Music

Sound and the Moving Image 3 (1) 71 85

Lebrecht Norman 2008 [2007] Maestros masterpieces and madness The secret life and shameful

death of the classical record industry London Penguin Books




Lemos Ronaldo 2009 Everything is under control The emerging globalperipheral music scenes

and how they reinvent the music business Paper presented at the conference Digital

Economies and the Politics of Circulation Columbia University New York 4 April

Lessig Lawrence 2004 Free culture How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture

and control creativity New York The Penguin Press

Leyshon Andrew 2001 Time space (and digital) compression Software formats musicalnetworks and the reorganisation of the music industry Environment and Planning 33 49 77

Manuel Peter 1993 Cassette culture Popular music and technology in North India Chicago

University of Chicago Press

Mertha Andrew 2005 The politics of piracy Intellectual property in contemporary China Ithaca NY

Cornell University Press

Moffat Rudi 2008 Resistance is futile The Journal of World Intellectual Property 12 (1) 75 87

Morcom Anna 2008 Getting heard in Tibet Music media and markets Consumption markets and

culture 11 (4) 259 85

Ochoa Gauthier Ana Maria and George Yudice 2002 The Latin American music industry in an

era of crisis Paper prepared for The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity Division of Arts

and Cultural Enterprise UNESCO ParisRojas Alcocer Laureano and unnamed authors1994 35 an os de folklore marcando la soberania

patria Historia de 29 festivales Lauro Records Cochabamba Bolivia Impreso en Talleres

Grafico Lauro amp Cia

Sanchez Walter 1996 Nacionalismo y folklore Indios Criollos y Cholo-Mestizos Taquipacha

Revista Boliviana de Investigacio n en Cultura y Mu sica 4 53 64

Sandall Robert 2007 The day the music industry died The Sunday Times 7 October Times

Online Available from httpentertainmenttimesonlinecouktolarts_and_entertainment

musicarticle2602597ece (last accessed 10 June 2008)

Stobart Henry 2006 Music and the poetics of production in the Bolivian Andes Aldershot Ashgate

Story Alan Colin Darch and Deborah Halbert 2006 The CopySouth dossier Issues in the

economics politics and ideology of copyright in the global south The CopySouth ResearchGroup University of Kent UK

Suarez Marcelo 2009 Discolandia asume nuevos retos al cumplir 50 anos El Deber Santa

Cruz Bolivia 18 January Available from wwweldebercombo (last accessed 10 June 2008)

Taussig Michael 1980 The devil and commodity fetishism in South America Chapel Hill University

of North Carolina Press

Wang Shujen 2003 Framing piracy Globalization and fi lm distribution in greater China Lanham

MD Rowman and Littlefield Publishers

Weisbrot Mark Rebecca Ray and Jake Johnston 2009 Bolivia The economy during the Morales

administration Washington DC Center for Economic and Policy Research Available from

wwwceprnet (last accessed 11 October 2009)

56 H Stobart



Copyright of Ethnomusicology Forum is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or

emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holders express written permission

However users may print download or email articles for individual use



A striking characteristic of the so-called lsquodigital agersquo is the almost effortless capability it

provides to create multiple identical copies a phenomenon that has fundamental

implications for the status of the copy and copyright1 Until recently mass

reproduction was the prerogative of the owners of costly equipment acquired through

high-capital investment the so-called manufacturing industries In the case of therecord industry this technological advantage went hand in hand with legal

mechanisms such as copyright and agreements ensuring control over products

artists promotion and distribution (Leyshon 2001 52) But with the rise of digital

technology and the democratisation of replication this permits the record industryrsquos

technological advantage is evaporating All around the world artists are increasingly

producing their own recordings often with relatively cheap digital equipment and

using them sometimes in conjunction with creative new forms of distribution to

promote live concerts and generate other income streams In turn large-scale record

labels with high overheads and expensive products are in many cases becomingprogressively more redundant According to several commentators the record

industry as we have known it is in terminal decline (Knopper 2009 Kusek and

Leonhard 2005 Lebrecht 2008) Yet seemingly paradoxically lsquomusic itself is in fact

more popular more diverse and is being listened to by more people than everrsquo (Gordon

2008 117)

In the lsquoglobal northrsquo2 the woes of the record industry reflect on the one hand its

partial loss of control over replication especially in the form of MP3 music files

circulated via the Internet and on the other the end of the compact disc (CD)

bonanza This highly priced format had enabled certain areas of the record business to

reap vast profits not only from new productions where lsquothe payoff for a successfulalbum was spectacularly lucrativersquo (Gordon 2008 117) but also from the re-release at

little cost to themselves of classic LP recordings3 CD sales rose exponentially from the

mid-1980s peaking in 2000 when an estimated 942 million units were sold in the

United States alone (Joyce 2006) Since this time the CD market of the north has

progressively declined in part giving way to digital downloads (Davies 2008 Joyce

2006) However in many parts of the lsquoglobal southrsquo where Internet connectivity

remains limited the period since the turn of the millennium (and in Chinarsquos case

somewhat earlier) has in contrast been marked by an explosion in the production

replication marketing and availability of music discsYet the optical disc format that has taken precedence in poorer regions of the world

has often been the video compact disc (VCD) a cheap technology that enables video to

be digitally recorded on to CD discs (Langlois 2009 Morcom 2008) Introduced in

1993 initially by Philips and Sony the industry realised that the VCD would quickly be

eclipsed by the greatly superior capacity and picture quality of the DVD4 which was

shortly to be released on to the market Thus rather than further develop this

essentially doomed new format in the lsquoglobal northrsquo Philips and Sony decided to launch

it in China a decision that was to reap huge profits due to their control over the VCD

chip patent (Wang 2003 50 1) According to R Todd King in China the VCD achieved

the fastest and deepest growth of any technology in history yet it was treated as lsquoa

28 H Stobart














































































market strategies






30 H Stobart










Molina 2008 120)
















11











































Bolivian majority






32 H Stobart
















the work of others



PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN


LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz







market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart



















































































market strategies






30 H Stobart










Molina 2008 120)
















11











































Bolivian majority






32 H Stobart
















the work of others



PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN


LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz







market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart















Molina 2008 120)
















11











































Bolivian majority






32 H Stobart
















the work of others



PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN


LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz







market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart




































Bolivian majority






32 H Stobart
















the work of others



PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN


LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz







market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart





















the work of others



PERU

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILEARGENTINA

PARAGUAY

La Paz

Cusco

OruroCochabamba

Sucre

Potosiacute

Puno

SOUTH

PACIFIC

OCEAN


LakePoopo

A N D E S

M O U N T A I N S

Macha

Desaguadero

Iquique

Juliaca

Santa Cruz







market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart










market
































34 H Stobart












































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart

















































dollars20





























36 H Stobart






























market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart



































market






















38 H Stobart





























national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart


































national ones



































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart
































cover of darkness











40 H Stobart











Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart
















Cover Story


































42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart




























42 H Stobart













pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart


















pirated VCD discs













44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart
















44 H Stobart





























Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart


































Retards29






















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart















































46 H Stobart




























































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart

































































































































50 H Stobart












Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart

















Acknowledgements













Notes














(Appadurai 1996 30)



















2005)


















brandy])



























to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























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References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart















to grow

























References









York Palgrave



54 H Stobart























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart




























30 July 2009)









13 July 2009)


































culture 11 (4) 259 85























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culture 11 (4) 259 85























56 H Stobart






shifting rampant reproduction and digital democracy: shifting landscapes of music production and...

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