Final Project Proposal for my Law Class in the MCDM
Topic: Stealing the stolen
Seemingly innumerable amounts of copyrighted materials are published and shared by millions on-line today. Much of these cultural artifacts are distributed by copyright owners through approved channels. However, a great deal of this IP is being distributed illegally, be it through file-sharing, torrents, mashups, remixes, piracy, or other means. Just as ‘return on investment’ is difficult to measure when copyright owners license or otherwise publish their content on-line, it is not unreasonable to assume that the lasting impact of user appropriation or piracy of material published is equally difficult to measure. Nevertheless, measuring this potential impact is critical to copyright owners; the subject itself is rife with problems, and finding solutions to this new world of stealing and appropriating IP is of major importance. The cultural production sector, as Benkler would call it in his seminal work, The Wealth of Networks, is a sector built on social production (2006). IP finds its way on-line, and thereafter is commoditized and commodified by the masses for their own social production. Once IP reaches the web, it is no longer controllable – it is stolen and re-stolen time and time again. This arena of lawlessness is where I wish to center my research.
Research Question: Mitigation between infringing parties
Clay Shirky, in his book Here Comes Everybody, explains that in the realm of social media, wherein the aforementioned social production of appropriated content takes place (e.g. the mashups and remixes of commoditized and commodified copyrighted material), “social capital”, rather than financial gain, rules the day (2008). A culture of folk art and media based on or comprised of previously copyrighted material is being exchanged. Because social capital is so important in today’s cultural production sector, re-appropriations of material, such as stealing and republishing that which was already stolen, is rampant and often unwittingly encouraged. Most interestingly, infringing parties dispute with one another over material that neither has legal right to in the first place! My research question is thus: How does this mitigation take place, or how do the locals lay down the law in the new wild west? But, more importantly, what are the actual legal implications – how does this copyright infringing social production change actual policy and impact regulation?
Potential Areas of Exploration
I hope to look at several cases where infringing parties dispute with one another over how each lays claim to “authorship” of mashups and other appropriations when one venue or user steals from another. Two particular websites of note will be eBaum’s World and YTMND. Additionally, I will draw upon the writings of Benkler, Shirky, Lawrence Lessig, and potentially others to help craft some answers, as well as course materials.
References and Potential Sources
Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lessig, L. (2006). Code : Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books.
Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody : The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin Press.
Prepared for COM 558, Prof. Kraig Baker, Spring Quarter 2009, University of Washington MCDM Program.
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Tags: intellectual property, internet law, mashups, piracy, remixes