Corinne Tan (The University of Melbourne – Law School) has posted Regulating Social Media: Copyright's Regulation of Content-Generative User Behaviours on Instagram ((2018) 2 Intellectual Property Quarterly 140) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article uses Richard Prince’s controversial use of Instagram images in his artworks, as well as other uses preceding or arising from his use as a case study, as a basis to analyse how copyright laws in the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia could apply. The article also considers the application of Instagram’s terms of use, before proceeding to identify the technological features on Instagram that encourage and constrain the content generative activities of Prince and other users. Users are observed to receive mixed signals as to the activities that are permissible onsite. Further, each of the terms of use and the technological features is found to deviate from the copyright regime. These deviations arguably foster incorrect expectations in users, and can compromise the effectiveness of copyright laws in regulating content generative behaviours on social media sites such as Instagram.