A View of Copyright from the Digital Ground
FLORIDA LAW REVIEW FORUM, Vol. 70, 2018
6 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2019
Date Written: June 25, 2018
Abstract
This brief Response to Cathay Smith's Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore identifies how Professor Smith's article contributes to our understanding of the relationship between IP and creativity. Professor Smith conducted a granular case study of the process by which decentralized contributors developed the Slender Man mythology. The details she uncovers illustrate the complex motivations that lead people to contribute to collaborative creative projects. Her work also emphasizes the need to better understand how individuals organize creative collaborations, especially with respect to the mechanisms by which groups respond to creative failures. Finally, the Slender Man myth puts a fine point on the need to articulate a normative basis for copyright law independent of individual preference satisfaction elicited through market mechanisms.
Keywords: copyright, intellectual property, creativity, internet, folklore
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