Meta-Morphosis of Copyright and User-Generated Content: Can East Asia’s Emerging Policies Navigate through the Metaverse?
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Social-creative metaverses, which foster user creativity and encourage user-generated content, promise a revolution in digital creativity. However, metaverse developers often enforce strict regulations on user-generated content through user terms and conditions, restricting or permitting its reuse. These rules place an artificial barrier between users and their copyright, often waiving moral rights and making economic rights subject to mandatory licences. Using Second Life as a case study, this article demonstrates how metaverse regulations undermine users’ intellectual property rights and control over their creations. Furthermore, it examines emerging intellectual property policies in Japan, South Korea, and China, noting a lack of awareness regarding the impact of these regulatory layers on user creativity. Highlighting the importance of the external regulation of user terms and conditions, the article proposes potential policies and strategies for East Asia and beyond to protect users’ copyright ownership and mitigate the negative effects of restrictive metaverse terms and conditions.
Source: Asian Journal of Law and Society
DOI: 10.1017/als.2024.32
Author: Elnur Karimov
Institution: Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
Language: English
Topic: Intellectual Property Law
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4404975375