Summary

This article shows the results of a qualitative research on the uses of creative commons licenses in the Chilean cultural field. From 2005 to date, these tools have rapidly expanded into new forms of production, circulation, and consumption of works in the national cultural field. To trace the different social practices linked to the use of these technologies, we focus particularly on the experiences of cultural producers of netlabels and independent publishers. The study is based on information from twenty in-depth interviews with cultural agents from these subfields of production,
who have registered their works with different types of creative commons licenses. The analysis of the interviews allows us to delve into the different uses associated with these technologies and new dynamics of the cultural field, characterized by the increasing digitalization of their practices and by the emergence of socio-material assemblages that alter traditional modes of cultural production. The study also shows that cultural agents’ strategies tend to shape alternative practices to the commodification of culture and, at the same time, to question the dominant legitimation logics in the cultural field. Finally, from the analysis of the productive organization forms of these users of creative commons licenses in Chile, the political power of modes of association and collective invention based on collaboration and not on competition stands out.