On piracy

This book, then, connects with and reflects the changing agenda of piracy research by opening up the field to a wide range of new thematic, disciplinary and geographical points of view that take piracy seriously as a global, social, political and cultural phenonmenon. The geographic and thematic diversity of this collection reflects that development and gives a glimpse into the wider field of inquiry that takes the issues of piracy beyond the narrow focus on sales and business models. This is not to say that sales and business models are not important, but a discussion about the media economy has to be situated in a broad social context; and acknowledge other interests in order to be relevant. The readers will indeed find discussions about digital piracy and media economies in this book, but contextualized in a way that highlights more fundamental social, political and cultural aspects of piracy.