Page 270 - 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: Appendix 2 Interview Record (Participant A)
An Intermediary-oriented Approach

Huang: What other kinds of articles your account has published except interview records?
Participant A: Well, the majority is interview records, along with some articles for
volunteers to introduce and show themselves. They are all original. I had a plan to
publish a book before I started the public account, and this is the difference between me
and other account creators. Even though our work not gained so much attention until
now, it is meaningful and will be clearly showed when all the articles are collected into a
book. But till now only a few people can understand us. Most people don’t.

Huang: I guess the volunteers don’t know your plan.
Participant A: No, I haven’t told them. In fact, they even don’t know who I am.
Huang: But do you need to tell the volunteers when you decide to publish the book?
Participant A: Of course. I will ask them to update. The updated information is only
available via the book rather than the public account. And I will ask some celebrities to
write the preface.
Huang: Does your partner know you will quit your job and put all your time and efforts to
run the public account?
Participant A: I have told him I would like to start my own business in the future. But he
will doing academic research as his career. So I may need to find a new partner.

Huang: What’s the incentive for the volunteer? They don’t get money from it, do they?
Participant A: No. What they get in the end is a volunteer certificate. But they can learn
many things through this experience, such as how to design a good layout, how to
contact the interviewees, how to collect information from various source, etc. That’s why
there are so many volunteers.
Huang: Will the volunteers put their names on the articles they write?
Participant A: If the article is originally written by the volunteer, he will be credited. But if
he just collected some information, he will not get the attribution.

Huang: Has the volunteer asked for some reward?
Participant A: No. They at most asked who I am. But of course it must be kept secret. All
these volunteers are excellent.
Huang: How do you find the interviewees?
Participant A: Some are through my personal relationship, and some are contacted by the
volunteers themselves.

Huang: To be honest, I am very curious why you quit the job as a lawyer and start your own
business.
Participant A: Because lawyers are working for others and the work is very hard.
Hardworking itself is not a major problem. The key is the lack of creativity.

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