Discussion

Kairos Weighs In

Not only has the use of texts been examined in the court cases I have outlined in the previous sections, but the very terms that define our practices as writing teachers have shifted. One issue raised due to the legal developments in P2P cases concerns authorship and collaborative writing. How might we separate out issues of sharing, file sharing, collaboration, and individual authorship? Is there still a space for the individual author in digitally mediated spaces? (Here I acknowledge that while my sole name appears on this webtext it would have been an impossibility for me to write this without assistance from numerous human and nonhuman actors).

Another issue, as Dornsife (2006) argues, is the collapsing distinction between originals and copies in digital environments. If a copy is as high a quality as the original, what's the difference between them, and what meaning does that have for writing teachers amid copyright cases and a rising interest concerning plagiarism? The readers of Kairos might revisit plagiarism and ask: What is the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement? What does plagiarism mean if originals and copies are indistinguishable?

In the end, it is up to the readers and supporters of Kairos to chose how they relate to the law. My argument is that at this late stage, the law is on our turf -- our turf as writers and writing teachers. As Doug Hesse says -- we own writing. We are those who are the experts. But as with "culture," the law is often everywhere but not made visible. In those invisible moments, the law intersects Star and Ruhleder's (1996) definition of infrastructure in that the law is embedded, transparent, has far-reaching scope, and only becomes visible upon breakdown. It is this infrastructure which I have tried to make apparent for Kairos readers. The infrastructure has transformed over the last ten years, and while Kairos has had a small voice commenting on this transformation, I think we could all benefit from maintaining and increasing this voice.