Legal and Organizational Issues in Collaborative User-Created Content

Abstract

In this paper we look at issues that arise when people collaboratively create digital content and want to publicly distribute it. Our focus is on the organizational and legal problems. We identify and analyze these issues based on four case studies on amateur content production. Two of the cases, Habbo Hotel and Neverwinter Nights, are about fan/gamer-created content production based on material licensed by companies. In the two latter cases, a micromovie community Blauereiter and a web publication The Melrose Mirror, the content produced is not based on licensed material, but on the creations of the community members themselves. Based on the case studies, we identify that the main legal issues and concerns in collaborative creation of content are decision-making and liability. We argue that the content creation communities would often benefit in organizing themselves formally as entities such as corporations or cooperatives, or on a contractual basis.