Research on Fair Use of Digital Content in Social Network

Abstract

The convenience of sharing of digital contents in social network makes protection of copyrighted digital content a concerned problem. So many strict methods such as DRM technology are used to protect digital content, which makes enforcement of properly copyright laws difficult in social network such as fair use, a general concept denoting the legally protected right of people to use content based on exceptions and limitations of copyright laws. The paper firstly discusses the problem of fair use in social network from point of view of laws, rights holders and users of digital content. Then a fair use mechanism based on MRuleSN model, a multi-party authorization model for social networks proposed by the author. Finally, an example demonstrates the effects and flexibility of the methods.

This paper is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61373015 and 11326123, Science and Technology Foundations of Foshan under Grant No. 2012AA100251, Science Research Project of Foshan University.