The copyright protection of online user-generated content

Online social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube allow creative works to be more easily copied and distributed. This type of content is generally referred to as user-generated content and its creation has become a major component of our daily routine. As a result, user-generated content has the potential to influence not just the nature of social interactions but methods of doing business. The advent of user-generated content poses new challenges to copyright law, the conventional medium of protecting these creative works. The global reach of the internet and the increasing ease of access thereto make infringement of original material more likely and more frequent. User-generated content is also surrounded by legal uncertainty in the areas of defamation and privacy. It is beyond the scope of this paper to deal in any depth with these issues. This dissertation will focus on the implications of user-generated content within the realm of copyright. Specifically, this paper examines whether South African copyright law, in its present state, adequately protect the rights and interests of content creators on one end and website owners and proprietors on the other. This assessment will be guided, in part, by judicial precedent and legislative policies adopted in other jurisdictions.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Intellectual Property Research Unit

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Mudau, Sipho

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Schönwetter, Tobias

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12935

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12935