TO | Dr. TyAnna Herrington FROM | Aine Imbach DATE | March 15th, 2016 REGARDING | Project Proposal
Overview The following proposal outlines the components of my project on copyright limitations on Twitter and covers the following areas of explanation: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Introduction Motivating Factor of Interest Legal Issues Base Product Description Implementation 路 Methodology 路 Author credibility 路 Equipment 路 Schedule 6. Conclusion
Introduction This project aims to contribute to the discussion on racial discrimination embedded in the current structure of Intellectual Property Laws in the Unites States. As a third year student at Georgia Tech, I am neither an expert in the field of intellectual property law or in racial/cultural studies. My interest in this topic stems from the basis in intellectual property law that I have gained from our course so far as well as my personal observations of what can be considered modern civil rights discussions online. My experience at Georgia Tech has contributed to my curiosity for such areas of study, especially as they pertain to the new and developing world of technology. Innovations in technological communication have drastically changed the way in which we interact with the world of information. The discussion of such changes in relation to race is important because they have widely been disregarded by Intellectual Property laws, partly due to the novelty of the Internet and partly due to the subtle nature of such connections. In the following proposal I will outline the specific problem my project will focus on, the legal base for this problem, my proposed product description, and how I plan to implement this product.
Motivating Factor of Interest
My focus for the product proposed is to explain how the structure of Intellectual Property law and its history has marginalized the discourse of African Americans to outlets like Twitter – consequently a place where content is temporal, non-copyrightable and undervalued by the world of copyrighted material. This investigation will not aim to devalue the important political, cultural, and social movements taking place on social networking sites. Rather, I am interested in examining how the disproportionate nature of benefits under IP law has excluded large segments of the population who have in turn become active on social networking sites like Twitter. The issues at hand are that many elements of Twitter limit the discourse of its users, as well as the fact that the important content created there often goes unnoticed and is ultimately devalued.
Legal Issues Base This project will focus on Copyright law, its history of inequitable benefits to certain types of people and works, and its current limitations with respect to Social networking sites like Twitter. · The current IP laws for copyright do not protect content on Twitter (for the most part) · The requirements for copyrighted works are as follows o Originality: meaning it cannot be simply a reproduction of another’s work or a fact o Work of authorship: includes;
Literary works;
Musical works, including any accompanying words;
Dramatic works, including any accompanying music;
Pantomimes and choreographic works;
Pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;
Motion pictures and other audiovisual works;
Sound recordings; and
Architectural works
o Fixed in a tangible means of expression: meaning it is presented in a medium that is perceivable and reproducible I will aim to discuss the issues and reasoning behind such legal structures, and hopefully shed light on the inevitably damaging effects that would result if the issue is never addressed through changes in these structures.
I will use fair use, specifically transformative use, to make these comments using content in a way that is allowed under the law. ·
The Fair use doctrine outlines the factors considered in evaluating the validity of fair use. I will consider the following to ensure that my project is allowed under the law. o Purpose/character of use: includes whether the use is commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes. Additionally this includes whether a work is transformative, or adds something new to the original work o Nature of the original work: analyzes the relationship between the original copyrighted work and the purpose of copyright to encourage creation and expression o Amount and sustainability: takes into account the amount of the work used in relation to the entire copyrighted work o Effect of the use upon the potential market for/value of the copyrighted work: this is where the harm to the original owner of the copyrighted work is taken into account
Product Description The first part of my project will aim to educate by raising the issues described above. I aim to create something that is condensed and highly visual in order to effectively convey the information quickly and to imitate some of the aspects of the social media platform being studied. More specifically, I will present the requirements of copyright law on a digital platform and make each requirement clickable to reveal the more intricate details of how the requirements pose a problem to the cultural conversations and movements on twitter. To create a practical artifact to demonstrate my point, I will create my own Twitter account where I will post only tweets that have come from other users. Rather than using the “retweet” functions available to share content, I will copy the content I choose without any attribution to the original author of the tweet. The users will be well known among the Twitter community but will not be celebrities. My requirements will be that the user must have at least 10,000 followers and must be unverified by Twitter’s status. Verification is indicated by a blue check mark next to the user’s name, and is granted to guarantee authenticity of a well-known individual’s identity. I will not copy any tweets containing copyrightable content. Because tweets themselves are not copyrightable, I will not be infringing on the rights of the original users. However, the copyrightable content shared on Twitter (pictures, videos, etc.) is protected, so I will not use any tweets containing such content.
My employment of fair use will be hypothetical. I will not be using any copyrighted content, so fair use is not applicable. However, because I am discussing copyright, fair use issues could potentially come into play if the tweets were eventually copyrightable, and I will touch on this in my project.
Implementation Methodology To approach the issue at hand, I will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research. I plan first to use the framework of Copyright law to break down and analyze the rights of authors on twitter under the law. I also plan to use the personal experiences of Twitter users themselves, as it would be inadequate to exclude their voices given the scope of this project.
Author Credibility My basis in Copyright law and general Intellectual Property law from our course gives me grounding in the issues I will examine and allows me to better interpret the research of those more qualified in the areas I will be studying.
Equipment/supplies I will use Twitter as a resource for study and for implementation of my Twitter account. I will also utilize
Schedule March 15th · Research and understand Twitter’s copyright policy March 17th · Begin researching users on twitter and compiling information · Search for tweets relating to important events in the scope of “Black Twitter” March 30th · Search for research on transformative use in tweets and determine if parody is necessary to qualify as fair use April 5th · Choose tweets to copy on Twitter account April 7th · Create Twitter account · “Follow” accounts researched previously and begin tweeting selected copied tweets
April 12th · Compile all work into a product that is compact, visual, and digital April 14th – Presentation April 26th – final due
Conclusion The issues explored though my project have been shaped by my knowledge of Intellectual property laws, the political discourse of minority groups that I interact with on twitter, and the various researchers who have written about these intersections. I aim to use these tools to add to this conversation, in the interest of educating others and myself. I feel that creating a product that mirrors the characteristics of the communication technology I am examining, while also making a statement on its worth will be effective in its ability to attract an audience who it perhaps unaware of these connections. The acceptance of this proposal would allow for the criticism of the current structure of intellectual property laws.