[Air-L] an ethical question or two

Unsworth,Kristene ku26 at drexel.edu
Mon Aug 4 10:53:09 PDT 2014


Hi Charles,

Your email prompted me to turn to the US copyright page. My feeling is that using these materials would fall under "fair use." 

I'm sure you are well area of Section 107, but here is a quote from the Copyright webpage http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html :

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

        The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
        The nature of the copyrighted work
        The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
        The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

Since you are using materials that are available in the public sphere and the journal is most likely for research and educational purposes, I think using them without obtaining copyright is allowed.

Kris


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kristene Unsworth, PhD.
Assistant Professor

The College of Computing & Informatics
Drexel University
3141 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215.895.6016  |  Fax: 215.895.2494
Drexel.edu/cci 

-----Original Message-----
From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Charles Ess
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 1:17 PM
To: Air list
Subject: [Air-L] an ethical question or two

Dear AoIRists,

I am editing a piece for a forthcoming journal issue; it includes two screenshots of tweets from Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and a screenshot of the Facebook page of a politician running for office in 2014, including their pictures and names.
These are public figures very intentionally engaged in a public activity in a medium that functions as a de facto public sphere (or at least an approximation thereof).
There is nothing in the screenshots that could be construed as potentially embarrassing, much less libelous, much less potentially warranting protection as private.


I have gained the impression over the past few years that both in practice and in emerging guidelines codes, and law (specifically, based on what [little] I know of law surrounding freedom of speech and privacy issues in journalism in the U.S., the E.U., and Scandinavia), it is permissible to publish these without permission from the politicians in question.

At most, if these were tweets and FB pages posted by U.S. politicians aimed at U.S. voters, we would have to note that the tweets and pictures were de facto copyright by their authors; to my knowledge, however, there is no parallel requirement on this side of the pond.

Of course, it's usually when I think I know a good response to an ethical dilemma that I turn out to be missing something crucial - so: am I missing something crucial, or are we indeed on reasonably safe ground to publish the screenshots as is, no permissions required, no copyright notices included?

Many thanks in advance,
- charles ess

Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
P.O. Box 1093 Blindern
NO-0317
Oslo Norway
email: charles.ess at media.uio.no


 



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