Recently the commons has become a predominant metaphor for
the types of social relationships between people, ideas, and new digital
technologies. In IP debates, the commons signifies openness, the exclusion
of intermediaries, and remix culture that is creative, innovative, and
politically disobedient. This article examines the material and social
implications of these debates (and the legal copyright regimes they
interact with) in the translation and remix of Warumungu culture
onto a set of locally produced DVDs. Although DVD technology can account
for concerns such as monitoring access, preserving cultural knowledge, and
reinforcing existing kinship networks, it also brings with it the
possibility of multiple reproductions, knowledge sampling, and unintended
mobilizations. Tracking the shifting mandates and emergent protocols in
this digital interface redirects the lines of the debate to include
multiple structures of accountability, ongoing systems of inequity, and
overlapping access regimes involved in the always tense processes of
cultural innovation.