Page 188 - A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law：An Intermediary-oriented Approach

A Study on the Role of UGC Platforms in Copyright Law: Chapter 6 UGC Platforms’ Entitlement to UGCs
An Intermediary-oriented Approach

worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable
licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of,
display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and
YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including
without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the
Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and
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through any media channels.

All UGC platforms have similar statements about the scope of the licence UGC
platforms gain from UGC creators. According to Casey Fiesler and Amy Bruckman’s
empirical research, the average Flesch–Kincaid readability score for ToUs/ToSs is 14.8,
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which represents a college sophomore’s reading ability. Video sites and music sites have
even higher scores (17.7 and 17.2 respectively), and video and audio are the two most
popular media types of UGC creation.
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I examined the readability of the ToUs/ToSs of the 30 UGC platforms sampled. The
ToUs/ToSs were estimated by their length and how difficult it would be for laymen to
understand them. The results are provided in Appendix 17. Among the 30 platforms, only six
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contained a plain language version of the ToU/ToS. The average length of the ToU/ToS in
my dataset was approximately 4,500 words, and the longest was more than 15,000 words.
For an average adult, this would take more than one hour to read based on a reading speed
of 200 words/minute. As most popular UGC websites write their ToUs/ToSs in English, it
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would be more difficult for non-native English speakers to understand the long-winded and
uninviting text. The low readability and high word count indicate that even an adult with
the full capacity to make a contract could lack the ability to understand the terms of such
agreements.
I suggest that all UGC platforms should provide a simple, readable summary of their
ToUs/ToSs, written in plain language. It should contain provisions on things that materially
influence users’ interests, such as the ownership of UGCs, the licence of UCGs and platform-
generated content, warranty disclaimers, indemnity, limitations of liability, dispute resolution
and choice of law. Some UGC platforms have already provided examples of easy to read

136 Terms of Service in YouTube (n 53) art 6C.
137 Casey Fiesler and Amy Bruckman, ‘Copyright Terms in Online Creative Communities’ (CHI 2014, One of a CHInd, Toronto,
ON, Canada) 2554.
138 Ibid.
139 Terms of Use in Quora (n 106); Terms of Use in Wikipedia (n 106); Terms of Use Agreement in MySpace (n 106); Terms
of Use in ccMixter, art 4 <http://ccmixter.org/terms> accessed 19 May 2019; Terms of Use in Dailymotion, <https://www.
dailymotion.com/legal > accessed 19 May 2019; Terms of Service in Pinterest <https://policy.pinterest.com/en/terms-of-
service> accessed 19 May 2019.
140 Appendix 17. Iris Reading, ‘What Is the Average Reading Speed?’ <https://www.irisreading.com/what-is-the-average-
reading-speed/> accessed 19 May 2019 (‘Many resources indicate that the average reading speed of most adults is around
200 to 250 words per minute’.)

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