CAPTURING FAIR USE FOR THE YOUTUBE GENERATION: The Digital Rights Movement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the user-centered framing of fair use

Author: Postigo, Hector

Source: Information, Communication and Society, Volume 11, Number 7, October 2008 , pp. 1008-1027(20)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article undertakes an analysis of strategic framing strategies in the Digital Rights Movement by the movement's central Social Movement Organization (SMO), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Through analysis of a series of interviews with key members of the EFF and analysis of the EFF's 'Endangered Gizmos' campaign in response to the MGM vs Grokster case, this article shows how the organization strategically frames consumers as users' and fair use in user-centered fashion. In so doing the EFF develops a legitimizing rationale for expanding consumer privileges in copyrighted works. The analysis shows that the user-centered notion of fair use articulates with broader historical and emerging trends in media consumption/use and thus finds accepting audiences both within the movement and outside of it.

Keywords: social movements; strategic framing; fair use; digital rights; digital rights management (DRM); electronic frontier foundation (EFF)

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180802109071

Affiliations: 1: Department of Broadcasting Telecommunications and Mass Media, School of Communication and Theater, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Publication date: 2008-10-01

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