Copyright and Content Platforms

Learning Objectives

By completing this assignment, you will:

• Understand how content platforms detect and enforce copyright policies
• Explore the practical application of fair use doctrine through hands-on experiments
• Investigate copyright and ownership questions surrounding AI-generated content
• Analyze the gap between copyright law, platform policies, and actual enforcement practices
• Apply legal frameworks (fair use factors, relevant case law) to real-world scenarios

Introduction

Copyright law governs much of what we can and cannot do online, from sharing memes to uploading videos to creating AI-generated art. But how do platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram actually enforce copyright? What survives and what gets taken down? Where are the boundaries of fair use in practice?

In this assignment, you’ll conduct hands-on experiments with copyrighted content on a platform of your choice, investigate how AI-generated content is treated, and analyze the results through the lens of copyright law.

Important: This assignment involves deliberately testing platform copyright enforcement. Use good judgment:

• Don’t upload anything you wouldn’t want associated with your account
• Be prepared for content to be flagged, muted, or removed
• Don’t monetize any of the content you upload for this assignment
• You may want to create a separate test account
• Follow the platform’s terms of service

Tasks

1. Platform Copyright Policy Analysis

Choose ONE platform to focus on for this assignment. Options include:

• YouTube
• TikTok
• Instagram
• SoundCloud
• Twitter/X
• Vimeo
• Twitch
• Other platform of your choice (get approval first)

Research and document the platform’s copyright policy:

• How does the platform detect copyrighted content? (automated systems like Content ID, manual reporting, etc.)
• What happens when content is flagged as potentially infringing?
• What is the appeals or counter-notification process?
• How does the platform handle monetization of content containing copyrighted material?
• Are there any special programs (e.g., YouTube’s Content ID licensing agreements)?

Compare the platform’s stated policy with the behavior you observe in your experiments (Tasks 2 and 3).

2. Fair Use Experiments

Upload 2-3 pieces of content that test different aspects of fair use. Each piece should represent a different point on the spectrum of transformativeness. Suggested experiments:

• Raw copyrighted clip: Upload a short segment (5-10 seconds) of copyrighted content with no modification. Then try a longer clip (30+ seconds). Compare results.

• Commentary or criticism: Use copyrighted content while providing your own analysis, critique, or commentary. This is a classic fair use scenario (review, criticism).

• Educational use: Create content that uses copyrighted material to teach or explain something (e.g., analyzing a film technique, explaining a song’s musical structure).

• Parody or satire: Create a humorous derivative work that comments on or criticizes the original.

• Remix or mashup: Combine multiple sources or transform content in a creative way.

For each upload, document:

• Screenshot of successful upload
• Time until detection (immediate, hours, days, never detected)
• Screenshot of any warnings, flags, copyright claims, or takedown notices
• Final outcome (content stays up, gets muted, blocked in certain regions, completely removed, monetization disabled, etc.)
• Any options presented to you (dispute, acknowledge, trim audio, etc.)

3. AI-Generated Content Investigation

Create 2-3 pieces of content using AI tools (e.g., DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT, Suno, etc.) with varying degrees of similarity to copyrighted works:

• Direct reference: Prompt that directly references copyrighted material (e.g., “Create an image of [specific copyrighted character]” or “Generate music in the style of [specific artist/song]”)

• Style mimicry: Prompt that asks for content “in the style of” a specific artist, franchise, or creator (e.g., “in the style of Studio Ghibli” or “in the style of Taylor Swift”)

• Original creation: Use AI to generate completely original content as a control/baseline

Upload each piece to your chosen platform and document:

• What was the AI prompt?
• Screenshot of AI-generated output
• Platform response (flagged, removed, allowed, etc.)
• Research findings:
  • What does the AI tool’s terms of service say about copyright?
  • Who owns the copyright to AI-generated content? (you, the AI company, the creators of training data, public domain/no one?)
  • What is your platform’s stated policy on AI-generated content?

4. Legal Analysis

Apply what you’ve learned about copyright law to your experiments:

• Fair Use Four Factors: For each of your fair use experiments (Task 2), analyze how it performs under the four fair use factors:
  1. Purpose and character of the use (transformative? commercial?)
  2. Nature of the copyrighted work (creative vs. factual?)
  3. Amount and substantiality used
  4. Effect on the market for the original

• Case Law: Reference relevant cases discussed in class (e.g., Google v. Oracle, Sega v. Accolade, etc.) and explain how they might apply to your experiments or to the platform’s policies.

• Gap Analysis: Discuss any gaps you observed between:
  • Legal theory (what copyright law says)
  • Platform policy (what the platform claims to do)
  • Actual enforcement (what actually happened)

Optional Extensions

If you want to explore further, here are some additional ideas:

• Test multiple platforms: Run the same experiments on 2-3 different platforms and compare their responses
• Gray area creative experiments:
  • Record a cover song (audio only vs. video)
  • Create traced or heavily-referenced artwork at varying levels of similarity
  • Produce fan fiction content (fan-made scenes, animations, etc.)
• Test edge cases: Very short clips (1-2 seconds), background music, memes, screenshots
• DMCA takedown exercise: Create original content, then file a DMCA takedown notice against your own content (or a partner’s) to experience the process firsthand

Deliverables

Submit a markdown file (with embedded screenshots and links) containing:

1. Platform Analysis: Description of your chosen platform’s copyright policies and mechanisms

2. Fair Use Experiments: For each of your 2-3 experiments:
   • Description of what you uploaded
   • Screenshots and documentation
   • What happened (timeline and outcome)
3. AI Content Investigation: For each of your 2-3 AI experiments:
   • AI tool used and prompt
   • Screenshots of generated content and upload
   • Platform response
   • Research findings on copyright ownership and policies
4. Legal Analysis:
   • Application of fair use factors to your experiments
   • Reference to relevant case law
   • Discussion of gaps between law, policy, and practice
5. Appendix:
   • All screenshots
   • Links to uploaded content (if still available)
   • Timestamps of uploads and detection

Submission Instructions

Push your completed assignment to your private GitHub repository. Your submission should include:

1. A markdown writeup (copyright-report.md) with your analysis and embedded screenshots
2. A folder containing all screenshots and supporting materials

Resources

• U.S. Copyright Office - Fair Use Index
• Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center
• YouTube Copyright Center
• EFF - Fair Use and Copyright
• Platform-specific copyright documentation for your chosen platform

Academic Integrity Note

This assignment involves creating and uploading content that may be flagged or removed. This is done for educational purposes to understand copyright enforcement. Do not:

• Use this assignment as an excuse to upload genuinely infringing content
• Attempt to profit from any uploaded content
• Violate platform terms of service beyond what’s necessary for the educational experiment
• Upload content that could get your account permanently banned

When in doubt, ask the instructor.