Remembering Video

Abstract

Informal cultural markets are not new. Nor are “pirate” video and software markets as different from formal markets as supposed. They are also markets governed by pricing, providing opportunities for leverage by market participants at the expense of each other. Pirate markets are a variant of a cultural market in which returns for sellers and costs to buyers factor in limited to no formal returns to content owners. Furthermore, in large parts of the world, such informal arrangements facilitate cultural, social, and market participation. This article remembers the disruptions that accompanied the VCR’s introduction to identify longstanding pathways of market formation to which the VCR and our current “digital” ensemble of DVD and downloads conform; and those features common to these and other media technologies which lend themselves to diverse production, distribution, and consumption arrangements globally.