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Does Copyright Law Promote Creativity? An Empirical Analysis Of Copyright's Bounty, Raymond S. Ray, Jiayang Sun, Yiying Fan
Does Copyright Law Promote Creativity? An Empirical Analysis Of Copyright's Bounty, Raymond S. Ray, Jiayang Sun, Yiying Fan
Vanderbilt Law Review
Modern copyright law is based upon a theory: increase copyright protection and you increase the number of creative works available to society. This theory has been the driving force behind an economic vision that has expanded, beyond all recognition, the original law created by the Statute of Anne. And with this expansion, we are told that the costs associated with copyright are worthwhile because of the bounty it produces. What if this theory could be tested? After all, this is not a question of faith or morality, nor is it a statement on how humans should behave; it is a …
"Transformative" User-Generated Content In Copyright Law: Infringing Derivative Works Or Fair Use?, Mary W.S. Wong
"Transformative" User-Generated Content In Copyright Law: Infringing Derivative Works Or Fair Use?, Mary W.S. Wong
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In the United States, the line between the type and level of transformation required for a copyrightable derivative work and that required to constitute fair use has not been drawn clearly. With the rise of user-generated content, this question (which arises in two distinct copyright contexts) has become even more important. At the same time, copyright law has generally shied away from defining authorship as a legal concept, preferring instead to develop and rely on the related (but not identical) concept of originality. This has resulted in a low copyrightability threshold that does not adequately account for the fact that …
Mass Culture And The Culture Of The Masses: A Manifesto For User-Generated Rights, Debora Halbert
Mass Culture And The Culture Of The Masses: A Manifesto For User-Generated Rights, Debora Halbert
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
User-generated content is a term used to describe the division between culture produced as a commodity for consumption and the culture that is generated by people acting as creative beings without any market incentive. While under current copyright law all types of creativity are protected, the laws of copyright exist primarily to protect commercial forms of expression, not the non-commercial ones that form the foundation of user-generated content. The disconnect between what current copyright law protects and how most people create generates tensions that must be addressed. This Article presents an argument for broader protection of all creative work, including …
Hume's Penguin, Or, Yochai Benkler And The Nature Of Peer Production, Steven A. Hetcher
Hume's Penguin, Or, Yochai Benkler And The Nature Of Peer Production, Steven A. Hetcher
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
This Article examines 'peer production," a term coined and a concept explicated by Yochai Benkler. My own interest in peer production stems from its importance as a new form of user-generated content. User-generated content is particularly interesting if Benkler is right in his claim that the positive analysis of peer-produced content may have normative implications with respect to copyright law--in particular, the implication that copyright law may play a deleterious role in the formation and maintenance of this potentially significant new form of user-generated content. We are in need of a theory of collective action for the social world that …