"A Sea of Red Ink and Broken Dreams": Copyright, Gatekeeping, and the Curtailing of Creativity and Creators' Rights in the Age of Streaming

In May of 2023, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike to protest unfair labor practices after a breakdown in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). From the picket line to social media, creators decried the reduction of wages in terms of minimums and residuals, the shrinking of writers’ rooms, and the proliferation of AI in Hollywood. The strikes took social media by storm, causing audiences and creators to weigh in on the matter. Discourses ranged from support for creators and outrage at their plight to capitalism’s stifling and censorship of creativity to the purpose of intellectual property in the context of AI. In the midst of these fevered discourses, the WGA published an article in which they called media corporations such as Netflix and Disney the “New Gatekeepers”, citing their power and influence in terms of setting employment and labor standards and hoarding of intellectual property. With this article as a launching point, this thesis explored how copyright law facilitates the economic, ethical, and creative conflicts between creators, media conglomerates, and audiences in the context of streaming services. To that end, a discourse analysis was conducted, analyzing 100 social media posts across Twitter (formerly known as X), Tumblr, and Reddit. The discourses surrounding the writers’ strike highlighted several areas in which there was a breakdown in the intent behind copyright law and how it actually functions and impacts those in the media industry. With this in mind, this thesis proposed solutions to these issues by considering alternatives to copyright such as the General Public License and Creative Commons while also looking to differing interpretations of copyright in other nations such as Japan, Poland, and France.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Costello, Taylor

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Fernback, Jan

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Kingston Mann, Larisa
• Molyneux, Logan

• Mass communication
• Media studies and production

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://scholarshare.temple.edu/handle/20.500.12613/11346

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/11346