Bookswapper.DE and the Easily-Shared Paper Book

Abstract

The digital age and the Internet have changed the way media are shared. Media spreadability, governed by content producers as well as consumers who share and repurpose content according to their own needs, allows for content to travel in more complex and messier ways than formerly possible. Rather than increasing the spread of e-books, these digital advances have facilitated the spread of physical books. The German book sharing website bookswapper.de is one example of this. Making use of laws and customs surrounding books as objects as well as symbolic and cultural goods, the website uses an online system to spread physical books to its users, highlighting the problematic spreadability of the e-book in the digital age.