Law Commons^™

The Tangled Web Of Ugc: Making Copyright Sense Of User-Generated Content, Daniel J. Gervais

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Even as a mere conceptual cloud, the term "user-generated content" is useful to discuss the societal shifts in content creation brought about by the participative web and perhaps best epitomized by the remix phenomenon. This Article considers the copyright aspects of UGC. On the one hand, the production of UGC may involve both the right of reproduction and the right of adaptation-the right to prepare derivative works. On the other hand, defenses against claims of infringement of these rights typically rely on (transformative) fair use or the fact that an insubstantial amount (such as a quote) of the preexisting work …