How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions
Online copyright law is a major issue for many in the creative industries. Independent artists often rely on sharing their work across social media and content-sharing sites, leaving them open to having their work stolen or misused. This paper discusses a series of 11 semi-structured interviews that...
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| Format: | Article |
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University of Illinois at Chicago Library
2016
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33075/ |
| _version_ | 1848794551645372416 |
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| author | Dowthwaite, Liz Houghton, Robert J. Mortier, Richard |
| author_facet | Dowthwaite, Liz Houghton, Robert J. Mortier, Richard |
| author_sort | Dowthwaite, Liz |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Online copyright law is a major issue for many in the creative industries. Independent artists often rely on sharing their work across social media and content-sharing sites, leaving them open to having their work stolen or misused. This paper discusses a series of 11 semi-structured interviews that examined attitudes towards copyright and attribution amongst webcomic artists, in relation to current copyright laws across the EU and internationally. Whilst artists are generally aware of the cover provided by copyright, they feel that it is not necessarily relevant or effective within the creative space they work in. There is very little support and there are few resources available to help them to fight for control of their work, and whilst artists do get angry about actual theft and removal of attribution, they accept that they have to put up with certain violations if they wish to continue to publish comics for free on the Internet. The paper ends by discussing potential solutions to the problems raised. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-33075 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:18:00Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | University of Illinois at Chicago Library |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-330752020-05-04T17:53:26Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33075/ How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions Dowthwaite, Liz Houghton, Robert J. Mortier, Richard Online copyright law is a major issue for many in the creative industries. Independent artists often rely on sharing their work across social media and content-sharing sites, leaving them open to having their work stolen or misused. This paper discusses a series of 11 semi-structured interviews that examined attitudes towards copyright and attribution amongst webcomic artists, in relation to current copyright laws across the EU and internationally. Whilst artists are generally aware of the cover provided by copyright, they feel that it is not necessarily relevant or effective within the creative space they work in. There is very little support and there are few resources available to help them to fight for control of their work, and whilst artists do get angry about actual theft and removal of attribution, they accept that they have to put up with certain violations if they wish to continue to publish comics for free on the Internet. The paper ends by discussing potential solutions to the problems raised. University of Illinois at Chicago Library 2016-05-02 Article PeerReviewed Dowthwaite, Liz, Houghton, Robert J. and Mortier, Richard (2016) How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions. First Monday, 21 (5). ISSN 1396-0466 copyright; webcomics; attribution; online art http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6107 doi:10.5210/fm.v21i5.6107 doi:10.5210/fm.v21i5.6107 |
| spellingShingle | copyright; webcomics; attribution; online art Dowthwaite, Liz Houghton, Robert J. Mortier, Richard How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title | How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title_full | How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title_fullStr | How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title_full_unstemmed | How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title_short | How relevant is copyright to online artists? A qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| title_sort | how relevant is copyright to online artists? a qualitative study of understandings, coping strategies and possible solutions |
| topic | copyright; webcomics; attribution; online art |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33075/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33075/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33075/ |