A sideways view of the film economy in an age of digital piracy

In what follows, I provide some tentative suggestions as to how informal systems can be integrated into existing methodological norms of film industry analysis. The ideas below were hatched over several years as I worked on a book about informal distribution circuits.[2] I started out wanting to know more about the diverse ways in which movies circulate, both on and off the books. Intrigued by the enormous range of titles in street markets and on Bit Torrent servers, I was curious as to why such complex and dynamic distribution systems surface in film industry literature only as policy problems or anti-capitalist resistances. It struck me that we lack an appropriate analytical language for talking about informal distribution, so I set about trying to come up with one. The present essay is a reflection on some of the methodological problems that arose from this project. Many questions are posed and relatively few will be answered. I hope nonetheless that the discussion will be of interest to researchers concerned with how to adapt media industry analysis to encompass informal practices.