The role of creative communities and entrepreneurs in producing digital content without formal intellectual property : the case of alternative pornography

Digitisation and the Internet have brought tremendous change to the exchange of information and content, transforming the creation, distribution and consumption of audiovisual material. They have led established institutions coordinating incentives for cultural production and exploitation to evolve and encouraged the emergence of new institutions and new paths for creative initiatives. Building on Schumpeterian research on “Mark I - Mark II” industrial patterns of innovation, as investigated first by Nelson and Winter (1982) and later, Malerba and Orsenigo (1995, 1996), this thesis assumes that the pornographic industry, can be modelled as two distinct entities. In the first part of the industry, the dominant segment is structured in a Schumpeter Mark II mode – an oligopoly with large companies (also called majors). The second part of the industry, also called the “alternative”, is composed of a creative fringe made of a “cottage” type industrial tissue, populated with productive individuals (also called “entrepreneurs”) and communities. In particular, alternative porn communities are centred around a certain opposition to the dominant market. They are distinctive not only in their intentionally aestheticised style but also in their production process. This characterises the fringe as a Schumpeter Mark I mode where innovation seeks to be radical, and low appropriation opportunities lead the way to entry on the market of creative entrepreneurs with low resources.