[Air-L] copyright and YouTube

Sat May 7 06:53:58 PDT 2011

This simply says that if you post material to Youtube, you represent that
you have the right to do so, and you give Youtube permission to store and
transmit it.

I don't think that leads to the conclusion you draw below.  I'm also not
sure how it is relevant to your research concerns.

Also, most of the replies you have been getting reference U.S. law.  If
your dissertation is to be published in Finland, you will need to consult
Finnish data protection law and/or copyright law.  You should not assume
that Finland follows the U.S. model in either area (it almost certainly
doesn't, and some of the answers you have been getting are dubious even
under U.S. law).

DLB

> Dear all,
>
> This interesting discussion seems to go on and on, very good :) I
> found in YouTube's terms of use a point which states that:
>
> "The Content on the Service, and the trademarks, service marks and
> logos ("Marks") on the Service, are owned by or licensed to YouTube,
> subject to copyright and other intellectual property rights under the
> law.[...] You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the
> necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to publish
> Content you submit; and you license to YouTube all patent, trademark,
> trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to such
> Content for publication on the Service pursuant to these Terms of
> Service."
>
> So basically it is OK if I leave usernames out but refer to YouTube as
> the source since it owns the copyright for all content on the service.
> Or does YouTube merely own copyright for republication of content on
> YouTube? This is a mess :)
>
> Maria
>
>
> Quoting "Christopher Richter" <crichter at hollins.edu>:
>
>> 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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>
>
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