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

[Christopher Richter]

Maria,

Shannon Oltmann is correct on the copyright issue--in U.S. law, at least, the fact that the comments are published in a fixed form means they are copyrighted.  Normally the author owns the copyright, but it can depend on the terms of service for the forum where they material is published--e.g. on-line newspapers may own the rights if the works were created as works for hire.  All that said, you are safe doing in-depth analysis of these without violating copyright law, and can even safely quote important examples, as long as you don't republish significantly large sections of individual pieces.  You can quote, but quote judiciously.

Citing where you retrieved originals so that others can see a primary source in its entirety is standard for published material, but you hesitate to cite the sources because you are concerned about the ethics of privacy.

If these are all statements from "publicly available discussions from YouTube, various online newspapers and celebrity-related forums," then, as Mark Johns notes, the original authors have already chosen to make them public. 

So the issue turns on the question of whether on-line fora should be treated like traditional publications--no ethical dilemmas in citing--or whether their authors should be treated like the traditional research subjects that are recruited for interviews, experiments, ethnographies, etc., whom for sensitive topics should be guaranteed confidentiality, and further, should be briefed up front, or debriefed afterward, on the purpose of the study.

Though I would lean toward the former, especially for online newspapers.  But you really need to check with your doctoral institution.  Most U.S. colleges and Universities, at least,  have some type of human research board, the members of which formulate specific policies on when permission, confidentiality, etc. are required.

Hope this helps.

Christopher J. Richter

Associate Professor, Communication Studies
Hollins University
8015 Quadrangle Lane
PO Box 9652
Roanoke, VA 24020-1652

Tel: 5403626358
Fax: 5403626286
crichter at hollins.edu 
www.hollins.edu 


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Maria Eronen
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 7:21 AM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-L] a question about privacy protection and copyright in Internet research

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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