Sanctioning Value: The Legal System, Hyper Power and the Legitimation of MP3.

Abstract

In this paper we provide an historical account of the contestation surrounding MP3 and its legitimation as a consumer choice option. We undertake a genealogy to expose the ‘conditions of possibility’ and ‘conditions of acceptability’ for the legitimation of exchange-based consumption for digital music. In doing so, we enter the domain of ontological politics to show how the legal system enables value production in shaping exchange relations and consumer practices. To explicate these processes, we depart from the extant literature by focusing on the activities of courts of law. This enables us to show that legitimation relies on the silencing of oppositional discourse before it enters the market. This is a function of the ‘hyper-power’ practiced by the legal community and related actors, which, as we show, help constitute or deny value product offerings and the consumer practices through which such value is co-created.