The role of copyright in online creative communities: law, norms, and policy

Fiesler, Casey

Title:

The role of copyright in online creative communities: law, norms, and policy

dc.contributor.advisor	Bruckman, Amy S.
dc.contributor.author	Fiesler, Casey
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Anton, Annie
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Gilbert, Eric
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Lampe, Cliff
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Tushnet, Rebecca
dc.contributor.department	Interactive Computing
dc.date.accessioned	2015-09-21T14:26:42Z
dc.date.available	2015-09-21T14:26:42Z
dc.date.created	2015-08
dc.date.issued	2015-07-23
dc.date.submitted	August 2015
dc.date.updated	2015-09-21T14:26:42Z
dc.description.abstract	Many sources of rules govern our interactions with technology and our behavior online—law, ethical guidelines, community norms, website policies—and they do not always agree. This is particularly true in the context of content production because copyright law represents a collection of complex policies that often do not always account for the ways that people use and re-use digital media. Within legal gray areas, people make decisions every day about what is allowed, often negotiating multiple sources of rules. How do content creators make decisions about what they can and cannot do when faced with unclear rules, and how does the law (and perceptions of the law) impact technology use, creativity, and online interaction? Combining in-depth interviews, large-scale content analysis, and surveys, my work examines the complex relationship between law, site policy, norms, and technology. This dissertation provides a better understanding of how content creators engage with copyright and how norms organically form within communities of creators. It concludes with a set of design and policy recommendations for online community designers to help better support current practices among content creators.
dc.description.degree	Ph.D.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53937
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject	Computer-supported cooperative work
dc.subject	Copyright
dc.subject	Creativity
dc.subject	Fanworks
dc.subject	Online communities
dc.subject	Social computing
dc.subject	Policy
dc.title	The role of copyright in online creative communities: law, norms, and policy
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Dissertation
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.advisor	Bruckman, Amy S.
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Computing
local.contributor.corporatename	School of Interactive Computing
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relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	c8892b3c-8db6-4b7b-a33a-1b67f7db2021
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	aac3f010-e629-4d08-8276-81143eeaf5cc
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral