The international debate over file-sharing is defined by polarities. Some view this conflict as a battle for internet openness against the efforts of the film and music industry to bring about a second Enclosure Movement, this time against the worldwide digital commons. Others, however, consider it to be a legitimate law-enforcement operation against wilful facilitators of large-scale copyright infringement.
In his book, Online File Sharing, published in early 2014, Jonas Andersson Schwarz argues that this dichotomy is a deeply flawed way of understanding the file-sharing dispute. Using tools from critical theory and political philosophy, Schwarz aims to break down the binaries, and to demonstrate that the reality of file-sharing is simply too complex, and too nuanced, to be captured by way of dualities, no matter which side projects them.