PERUWOOD: The digital video industry in Peru

This article studies the expansion of digital technologies in Peru, one of the emerging economies of South America. I suggest that the arrival of VCD and DVD technologies has provoked a rampant increase of audiovisual piracy and, at the same time, the development of a video industry controlled by a popular social sector separate from mainstream institutions. The productive base of this industry is composed of formal-sector microenterprises dedicated to recording and selling videos with local content, as well as appealing to low-income market segments. Distribution is realized mainly though piracy networks. It is clear that digital technologies facilitate the democratization of production, commercialization, and consumption of audiovisual media. These technologies enlarge the opportunities for circulation of audio visual content different from European and North American tastes and aesthetic canons and have fostered the appearance of open business models that do not depend on authors' rights to accumulate capital. © 2013 by the Latin American Studies Association.