[Air-L] a question about privacy protection and copyright in Internet research

Fri May 6 05:21:02 PDT 2011

Maria-

U.S. copyright says, basically, once the expression is fixed--once 
they've typed out and posted their words, for example--copyright is 
granted. So, generally, the posters would own the copyright to their 
posts. However, this general statement is complicated by the use of 
certain software. Facebook, for example, claims ownership and hence 
(I'd think) copyright for everything posted.

I think you should address copyright like this: 1)Check the 
software/organization to see what their policies are concerning 
copyright and use of their material for research purposes. In general, 
I think you'll find that most of these organizations own copyright but 
will let the material be used for research. 2)If that is so, then it's 
a good idea to check with the original poster to get permission to use 
their comments (as you've done). If you get their permission, 
particularly in email/ writing, then I think you're covered on the 
copyright front. Of course, if they deny permission, then you can't use 
their comments. 3)If the organizations differ from what I've written 
above (for example, Twitter probably does, as evidenced by the recent 
discussion on this list), you'll have to proceed on a case by case 
basis.

As far as ethics...I think you should mask both their true identity 
(actual name) and their user name. But I haven't done too much internet 
research to date. I would think some standards have developed by 
now--how do researchers generally handle this problem? Do people 
generally create pseudonyms for online pseudonyms? I defer to the other 
researchers here.

-Shannon Oltmann

Shannon M. Oltmann
Doctoral Candidate
Adjunct Instructor
Profile: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/spotlight/index.php?facid=108
School of Library & Information Science
Indiana University

Quoting Radhika Gajjala <radhika at cyberdiva.org>:

> Maria - this dilemma persists for every beginning phd project starting with
> email lists (see my book from 2004 on Cyberselves: Feminist Ethnographies of
> South Asian women as an example from another generation)
>
> My 2 cents -
>
> copyright -  If its public - they dont have a law suit case - besides you
> also got actual email permissions from them as well.
>
> Ethics - if its sensitive material - dont reveal their real of youtube
> account names?
>
> share your dissertation with them?
>
> - but let's see what others have to say:)
>
>
>
> Finish your project - then worry about this as you get nearer to
> publication.
>
> r
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 7:20 AM, Maria Eronen <m85327 at student.uwasa.fi>wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I am Maria, a PhD student from Finland and currently working with my thesis
>> concerning how celebrity gossip leads to moral discussion on the Internet. I
>> think I have some problems with research
>> ethics. My research material consists of publicly available discussions
>> from YouTube, various online newspapers and
>> celebrity-related forums. Because I'm conducting linguistic analysis, it is
>> reasonable to cite comments from
>> those online discussions.
>>
>> One central topic I am focusing on is autobiographical moralizing (for
>> example, discussion participants
>> compare violence involving celebrities with their own-life experiences of
>> violence, such as telling how their partner once hit them).
>> This kind of material is what I categorize as sensitive and see it better
>> not to refer to pseudonyms or usernames. I make it clear in
>> my work that in some cases I see it better to stress privacy protection
>> over copyright. However, I will mention the
>> forum, where the comments come from, as a source (such as YouTube). I have
>> personally contacted every one
>> whose comments I see as sensitive. I want to use even senstive comments
>> because they are valuable material
>> from the point of view of the  research. No one of them whom I contacted
>> has said no. But of course, I'm not even sure whether they have
>> seen the posts I sent to them (actually one replied to me and just wanted
>> to know more about the study).
>>
>> In order to protect myself, I have not copied the whole comments, but left
>> some parts of them out of the
>> publication. The problem is now that by letting them know such a research
>> they might see their posts in the
>> dissertation and start a law case (because I don't authorize their words).
>> The comments I cite without referring
>> to the users as authors do not seem as pieces of creative art, but they are
>> typical examples of online discussion.
>>
>> However, I'm a bit concerned because the posters whom I cite without
>> permission, are American. The work itself will
>> be published in Finland.
>>
>> Do you think this kind of privacy protection is a good reason to leave the
>> usernames out? Am I too concerned or could this lead to serious
>> consequences? Has anyone had similar experiences?
>>
>> I would be very thankful if you had time to help me,
>>
>> all the best, Maria Eronen
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Radhika Gajjala
> Director, American Culture Studies
> Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies
> 101 East Hall
> Bowling Green State University
> Bowling Green, OH  43403
>
> http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
> _______________________________________________
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