From The Theme
ONLINE MEDIA CONTENT


WHAT IF
What if we could facilitate consumer publication and use of online content by creating a more defined legal environment in which creative expression and use of content are encouraged, while the rights of creators of digital content are protected?

WHAT WE SET OUT TO DO
We set out to map the range of legal challenges surrounding consumer publication and use of online content. Through targeted research, we aimed to formulate possible legal and/or technological solutions to some of the challenges inherent in consumer generated content.

WHAT WE FOUND
Our research identified a range of legal challenges surrounding consumer publication and the use of online content. We created a hypothetical online marketplace for sophisticated content transactions in order to best explore the ramifications of these issues. The platform enabled content owners and content producers to attach their licensing preferences to their content. Content producers could use this tool to get fair compensation for their work, and also clear copyrights in any third-party owned content. Users could easily find, access, and obtain permission to use pieces of content, remix and build it into new work, release this new work on the web, and receive royalties for further use of this work.

LEARN MORE
Roland Vogl, Joshua H. Walker, Gabriel Ramsey, Hakim S. Haouideg, Stefania Fusco, & Harry Surden, Stanford Intellectual Property Exchange (SIPX): A Legal Framework for Consumer Publication on the Internet, Stanford Law School — Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology (2006) (Stanford CodeX report).

Martha G. Russell, Camilla (Jiafeng) Yu, Franny Lee. Student Attitudes and Preferences for Cost and Format Options in Personalized, Cost Subsidized Print. (2012). mediaX White Paper.

PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT
Margaret Jane Radin is the Henry King Ransom Professor of Law, emerita, at the University of Michigan Law School. At the Stanford Law School, she was the William Benjamin Scott and Luna M. Scott Professor of Law, and Director, Stanford Law School Center for Ecommerce. Radin’s best known scholarly work explores the basis and limits of property rights and contractual obligation. She has also contributed significantly to feminist legal theory, legal and political philosophy, and the evolution of law in the digital world.

Roland Vogl is the Executive Director of CodeX – the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics and the Executive Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science & Technology (LST) and a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School. His expertise is in legal informatics, intellectual property law and innovation.

Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director. The same year he launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb.

Rufus J. Pichler is a partner in the Firm’s Technology Transactions Group. He is based in our San Francisco office and frequently also works out of our Berlin office. He has over 17 years of experience advising clients on a wide range of transactional matters involving technology and intellectual property.

JuNelle Harris graduated from the Stanford Law School in 2005. At the time of the project, she was a J.D. candidate, the Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Technology Law Review and a research assistant to the Program in Law, Science & Technology.