Page 252 - 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:
An Intermediary-oriented Approach

ToSs on UGC platforms with some guidelines to govern platform users’ use of UGCs,
prevent UGC platforms from obtaining unnecessary licences from UGC creators, ensure
UGC creators’ remuneration from the exploitation of their UGCs and guarantee an effective
dispute resolution mechanism for UGC creators.
The fundamental purpose of the proposed schemes in this thesis has been to protect
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the countless numbers of end users, including non-commercial UGC creators, whose use
would not conflict with a normal exploitation of copyrighted works and who inherently have
weak bargaining power. As Rebecca Tushnet put it, ‘user groups are rarely at the negotiating
table, and those that are—libraries, educational institutions, electronics manufacturers, cable
companies—tend to have specific interests that targeted, highly detailed statutory carve-outs
13
from otherwise expansive copyright rights placate’. Because UGC platforms host various
kinds of users, they should represent the general rather than the niche interests of their users
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who play the dual role of both content producers and consumers (prosumers). Highlighting
the legal interests and liability of UGC platforms in exploiting UGCs would ultimately
promise an ample breathing space for large numbers of prosumers despite their inability to
be present at the table.

12 See note 10 in Introduction.
13 Rebecca Tushnet, ‘I Put You There: User-Generated Content and Anticircumvention’ (2009) 12 Vanderbilt Journal of
Entertainment & Technology Law 889, 891
14 Yahong Li, ‘The Age of Remix and Copyright Law Reform’ (2019 forthcoming) Law, Innovation and Technology 8 <https://
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3316523> accessed 15 April 2019; José van Dijck ‘Users Like You? Theorizing
Agency in User-Generated Content’ (2009) 31 Media, Culture & Society 41, 41.

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