HCC: Small: Copyright and Online Communities: An Empirical Study of Social Norms and User Conceptions

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This research will develop a detailed understanding of interactions between copyright law, social norms, and user behavior in online communities where people create and share content. Recent work has found that the following five things are typically different: (1) what the law says; (2) what people think the law says; (3) what people think is ethical; (4) community norms; and (5) what people actually do. How can we better understand users, how they engage with copyrighted content online, and how they interact with one another in environments of creative sharing? To fully answer these questions, it is necessary to address all five dimensions, and their complex interactions. This research takes up the task of understanding how these dimensions function within different online communities, how community norms evolve, and what lessons can be derived for online community management and design. The Internet is a rich medium for a vast spectrum of creative activity. People make original art, write stories, make videos, and share them with others online. The raw material for this wealth of creativity is a combination of original ideas and existing content, including the remix of copyrighted material created by corporations or other Internet users. As a result, while the nuances of copyright law were once something that largely mattered only to commercial producers of content, technology has changed all of this. With both copying and wide dissemination made orders of magnitude easier thanks to digital content and the Internet, copyright is now something that touches the average computer user on almost a daily basis. This is particularly true for the large number of online amateur content creators. However, just because the law is more relevant to more people does not mean it is more easily understandable. The same confusions that have always existed in applications of the law have been exacerbated by technological advances. Social norms that form within these communities of creators do not necessarily track exactly to the law, but represent shared understandings and constructions, as well as ethical intuitions. These norms interact in intricate ways with other sources of order in online communities - legal rules, site policies, and technology-imposed control - and only together provide a complete picture of user behavior. This study will gather data from three sources: (1) current online community policies; (2) public conversations about intellectual property occurring on current online sites and archives from older communities; and (3) interviews with creators of online creative content. The analysis will focus on teasing out the norms that exist within different communities, how they have evolved, and how they interact with the law as written and as enacted by community policies. The results of this research will better inform online community design, and more broadly contribute to our fundamental understanding of how social norms operate in complex sociotechnical systems. It will provide evidence-based guidance for online community designers, and for policy makers tasked with helping the law adapt effectively to new technologies. Broader educational impacts of this research include the training of two graduate students in this interdisciplinary field of study. Additionally, this research will enrich the curriculum for the required undergraduate class CS 4001 "Computers, Society, and Professionalism."