[Air-L] IRB Exemption and Terms of Service - Reddit.com

Tilton, Shane tiltons at ohio.edu
Fri Oct 26 10:11:07 PDT 2012


Charles,

I think the copyright point should be moot based upon the Fair Use argument that Kathie referred to earlier. The protection of the intellectual property should not be effected by your research.
As for the IRB, Rutgers is worried about the harm your research is going to do to your research pool. AoIR has discussed IRB issues for years. The best answer is to fill out the exemption form at http://orsp.rutgers.edu/sites/orsp.rutgers.edu/files/irb_forms/IRB%20Exempt%20Appl.doc and be as clear as what your research is looking for.

As for previous research, look at Eric Rothenbuhler work on the cult of the celebrity and my work on Nanocelebrity.

Shane Tilton
Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 26, 2012, at 11:25, "Charles Tong" <charles.t.tong at gmail.com<mailto:charles.t.tong at gmail.com>> wrote:

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much for all the help. This is going to be astronomically
helpful to me. I am currently scheduling an appointment with my
university's legal services and my university's IRB to sort this further
out. I will be sure to negotiate something out of this.

I am located in the US, and am currently going to Rutgers University. I
apologize for not mentioning it in my first e-mail. The information that I
am specifically gathering includes:

        Username who posted (recoded into a number for anonymity)
        Total Karma for post
        Number of Upvotes and Downvotes received
        Number of Replies
        Who the post replied to
        The highest post in a reply hierarchy
        Content of post (if they are a celebrity)
        Whether the post is posted by the topic creator
        If the post is the topic post, the topic post’s content, and the
topic’s title

Further, these data will be collected for each person listed as a
“celebrity:” A celebrity is determined by those who receive at least 50
upvotes or downvotes

        Total Karma
        Total Karma for that day (Link and Comment)
        Total Upvotes and Downvotes for that day
        Total posts during the day
        Number of replies received during the day

Does he nature of the information that I'm gathering violate the Copyright
Act? Please let me know if any more information is needed.

Once again, thank you very much much for helping me with this project.

Best Regards,
Charles Tong


On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Dan L. Burk <dburk at uci.edu<mailto:dburk at uci.edu>> wrote:

Er -- since we don't know what jurisdiction Charles is in, we can't say
whether fair use applies to him or not (or, for that matter, how
enforceable the Reddit ToS is against him).

It sounds like he might be located in the U.S. but that's a guess.

I also don't think we know enough about his research to say very much
about copyright/fair use.  There are a lot of moving parts there.  Just as
an example, it's not clear to me from his post what kind of data he is
gathering -- but the copyright in the "influential posts" he wants to
analyze may very well lie with the authors, not with Reddit.

(In which case, if his IRB wants informed consent from the participants,
he might end up with their authorization to copy the material as well.)

DLB


Charles,

You've got two separate issues here: copyright and IRB.

According to my understanding you should be able to use the data you're
collecting under the Fair Use clause. The TOS you copied below
specifically mentions commercial or unauthorized uses under copyright.
The
Fair Use clause states: "...the fair use of a copyrighted work, including
such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means
specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news
reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright." You need
to understand though that fair use is not a right, it's a "defensible
position", meaning that it is an acceptable defense in any legal action;
however, you would have to prove that your use of the material falls
under
the fair use clause in a courtroom if the company decides to challenge
your use of their data--it doesn't automatically negate the possibility
of
legal action.

There are a couple of things I'd suggest. First, you need to find out
what
your advisor will approve. They are directing your thesis and you need to
make sure any data you use meets with their approval. Second, most
university legal departments have some statement about what constitutes
fair use on their campus, so I'd check with them (but I'd say only if
your
advisor requires it--many universities actually have much stricter
policies on paper than are required under the Fair Use clause). Third,
I'd
look at the Ethics Guide from AOIR
(http://aoir.org/documents/ethics-guide/) and make sure you're working
within those guidelines. They've been developed by scholars who regularly
work with the type of data you're using, so you should make sure your
study works within those guidelines.

Regarding IRB, I agree with Charles. You should contact your university
IRB and find out what requirements they may have for exempt or non-exempt
status. Often departments or colleges within universities will have an
IRB
specialist that you can work with and who will help you fill out the
appropriate applications.

Good luck,
Kathie


On Oct 25, 2012, at 3:22 PM, Charles Tong wrote:

Hello AoIR,

My name is Charles Tong and I currently working on my undergraduate
thesis in Sociology. Specifically, I am trying to construct a social
network based on reddit.com<http://reddit.com> by data-mining posts and comments from day
to day. I am specifically looking to identify how consistent influence
and power is created on the website. I hope to do this by constructing
multiple networks from day to day of specific sub-forums and
differentiating between those who are one-time stars and consistent
stars. Then I will perform a content analysis of certain influential
posts to determine what makes someone consistently powerful or not and
in what ways they are influential.

Unfortunately, I am unsure of how this will pass under IRB exemption.
I am hoping that anyone on the AoIR mailing list may have some insight
that may help. I have attempted to e-mail and get in contact with the
website numerous times, but each time, they have not responded. I
understand that I will have to send reddit.com<http://reddit.com>’s user agreement.

The user agreement states the following:
“You may not in any way make commercial or other unauthorized use, by
publication, re-transmission, distribution, performance, caching, or
otherwise, of material obtained through the Website, including without
limitation the Assets or Website Content, except as permitted by the
Copyright Act or other law or as expressly permitted in writing by
this Agreement, Service Provider or the Website.”

I was wondering if anyone knows how to approach this specific issue. I
understand that Fair Use might permit this research under the
Copyright Act, but I am not sure of its nature.

Thank you very much in advance for your help. Let me know if any
additional information should be provided.

Best Regards,
Charles Tong
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