To name a thief: constructing the deviant pirate

The term “piracy” is accompanied by considerable amounts of ethical, moral and legal baggage. Indeed, it is often discussed as “nothing but robbery,” a heinous act that offends “the most precious aspects of our capitalist system, which protect individuals’ property, creativity, and investment” (Pang 2004, 19). Within popular and much academic discourse it is hard to escape the understanding that pirates are nothing more than deviant thieves. On the rare occasions that pirates can escape this categorization, there is still little space to be seen as anything other than subversive radicals or potential consumers. This chapter focuses on a particular form of digital piracy, the circulation of East Asian films within file sharing forums, and asks how the file sharers within this context perceive themselves and to what extent these perceptions are shaped by external discourses on the nature of piracy.