In November, a widely viewed and well-received digital remix of the children’s book “Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer” was the product of not only Casey Fiesler’s dislike of the original plot, but a practical application of her research into copyright in online communities.
Fiesler, a Ph.D. Candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Tech, took the narrative - which had little to do with contemporary issues in computing and has since been pulled from bookshelves - and rewrote it, with contributions from HCC student Miranda Parker. The Barbie remix directly applies to her research in "fair use," a part of U.S. copyright law that allows for the use of copyrighted material without permission from the owners in certain instances.
"One of the core reasons that fair use exists is for criticism," says Fiesler. "A noncommercial, transformative work that uses copyrighted material in order to critique the original content, particularly in parody, is a textbook example of fair use. "
According to her recent research, “the law around reuse and remix is particularly confusing, and this kind of creativity is really common: everything from remix videos on YouTube to image memes shared on Facebook.”
Conducting a large-scale qualitative analysis of public forum posts, Fiesler, Jessica Feuston, and advisor Amy S. Bruckman found most conversations related to copyright expressed some kind of "problem." The eight websites reviewed for the study, from earlier this year, included top communities for writing, video, music and art. The YouTube data set, which had more than 1 in 10 posts (13%) related to copyright, shows the highest level of discussion on the topic. The overall findings show a range of concerns from users, including avoiding trouble, dealing with accusations of copyright infringement and parsing incompletete or conflicting information.
Fiesler’s group saw evidence of a general chilling effect, with some content creators simply not publishing online because of the perceived hassle or changing the website where they chose to publish. The study also provides recommendations for online community designers and maintainers, including monitoring user concerns on copyright and rewriting policies on copyright in “plain English.” The research study is being presented in March at CSCW 2015.
"Unfortunately, fair use can be confusing and scary, especially with so much misinformation floating around," says Fiesler. "My advice would be to learn as much as you can, because the more aware of your legal rights you are, the more confident you'll be."
After publishing her Barbie Remix, Fiesler posted on her blog details about misconceptions of fair use. She says that anyone facing trouble for a creative work that they think is fair use should use public resources for help, including organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Organization for Transformative Works.
