Playing on the digital commons: collectivities, capital and contestation in videogame culture.

Sarah Colman and Nick Dyer-Witheford (2007) article looks at the relationship between online gaming / fan production and the corporations. The authors discuss how copyright regulation replaced much of the collective traditions from oral culture and how cultural creation is born via the outcome of practices. The two side were distinguished as The rejectionists & The reformers.

The rejectionists, tend to represent the major corporations and industry associations which view the commons activity as criminal and having negative impacts on the future and growth of new media and its related industries.

The reformers, believe that cultural production in a digital world needs to have a more balanced & flexible copyright regimes that will protect, not just authors, but its audiences and sources also within the creative processes.

The paper suggests a need for our copyright laws to be reviewed and amended to accommodate our digital times.

Sarah Colman and Nick Dyer-Witheford (2007). Playing on the digital commons: collectivities, capital and contestation in videogame culture. Media, Culture and Society 29 (6), 934-953.
http://mcs.sagepub.com/content/29/6/934