Article 13, Branding, and Digital Remix Culture
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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2020 Memes and Copyright: Article 13, Branding, and Digital Remix Culture Yasemin Beykont University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons, and the Marketing Commons Recommended Citation Beykont, Yasemin, "Memes and Copyright: Article 13, Branding, and Digital Remix Culture" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 2460. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2460 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact open-access@uwm.edu. MEMES AND COPYRIGHT: ARTICLE 13, BRANDING, AND DIGITAL REMIX CULTURE by Yasemin Beykont A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee August 2020 ABSTRACT MEMES AND COPYRIGHT: ARTICLE 13, BRANDING, AND DIGITAL REMIX CULTURE by Yasemin Beykont The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2020 Under the Supervision of Professor Richard Popp This study investigates the impact of the EU digital copyright directive, Article 13, on memes and internet culture. Due to their transformative nature, it is tricky to fit memes into a traditional copyright framework. Article 13’s filter algorithms will be coded to detect posts that make use of intellectual property, thereby complicating the use of copyrighted images drawn from film and television. This study includes a discourse analysis of news coverage of Article 13 to explore how various groups characterized the value of meme culture and the threats posed by the new directive. It also includes a textual analysis of several social media advertising campaigns that utilized memes to promote products and build brand images. The thesis argues that the degree of diversity in meme culture will be threatened due to different state-based interpretations of copyright and that the use of memes as an advertising medium will likely be undermined. Keywords: internet memes, copyright law, intellectual property, consumer culture, participatory culture, brands, advertising ii © Copyright by Yasemin Beykont, 2020 All Rights Reserved iii To My loving parents, My encouraging friends, My excellent colleagues and professors, For providing your guidance, patience, and knowledge, Thank you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ........................................................................................................................ 4 The Role of Freedom of Speech and Remix Culture ............................................................... 4 Intellectual Property Law ...................................................................................................... 10 The US Copyright Law.......................................................................................................... 13 The EU Copyright Law ......................................................................................................... 15 Surveillance, Algorithms, and Memes .................................................................................. 19 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 23 Structure .................................................................................................................................... 25 WHY DOES ARTICLE 13 MATTER?: THE DISCOURSE AROUND THE "MEME BAN" .. 26 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 26 Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 28 General News Sites ................................................................................................................ 28 Technology News Sites ......................................................................................................... 41 Legal Commentary Sites ....................................................................................................... 50 Music News Sites .................................................................................................................. 58 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 62 WHY AND HOW DO COMPANIES MEME?: MEMES IN BRANDING CULTURE ............ 64 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 64 Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 67 Original Content Memes ....................................................................................................... 68 Transformed Memes .............................................................................................................. 75 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 92 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 96 References ................................................................................................................................... 101 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Netflix The Good Place Meme ......................................................................................72 vi INTRODUCTION Consumer culture is dynamic, and it changes with contemporary developments. It is not just about the transaction between the corporation and the consumer, but building connections, telling a story, and creating loyalty. Therefore, corporations find new spaces to engage with their consumers in different ways. Social media creates an alternate environment where corporations can promote consumer choices, listen to consumers’ experiences, and create a brand image (Kien, 2019). In today’s popular culture, one of the best ways to create reputations is through memes. Memes are a digital media genre that is used to reproduce and launch ourselves and give our feedback into the cultural system and can spread ideas either in its original or derivative form (Kien, 2019; Shifman, 2013). The online form of memes is defined by Limor Shifman (2013) as “units of popular culture that are circulated, imitated, and transformed by individual Internet users, creating a shared cultural experience in the process.” Corporations take advantage of this form of communication being created and spread quickly to build their reputation amongst their consumers (Rocha, 2017). This thesis explores how the corporate use of memes as a genre is part of participatory culture and how it is understood under different geographies’ copyright laws. Different approaches to the laws of freedom of speech and copyright alter the brands’ practices of using memes. Both bodies of laws are essential to the formation of the promotional culture of these nations. Along with contributing to culture with original ideas, freedom of speech also allows people to speak their minds by drawing on, modifying, innovating, and criticizing existing culture. Memes are an important example of using an existing culture. The reasons for one’s using memes vary. Ordinary people have social, political, or cultural motivations like accumulating social capital, constructing a social movement, or contributing to culture (Bennet and Segerberg, 2012; Castells, 2012; Erickson, 2015). On the other hand, 1 corporations use memes to market their names or services or communicate with their consumers (Csordás et al., 2017). I am particularly interested in memes as a promotional and branding tool. However, using existing culture means using others’ work to express one’s self and it creates a conflict between freedom of speech and copyright laws. Nations’ approaches to copyright law alter the level of this conflict with their different limitations and exemptions that are critical to the freedom of expression practices in those nations. The US and the EU have very similar copyright laws yet significantly different exemptions due to their approaches. While the US has an economic-based approach, continental Europe has a more natural-rights based one. These approaches lead to modifications in their fair use exemptions under copyright law. While the US incentivizes creative work drawn on existing work by allowing with larger exemptions, the EU protects the rights of the original work’s author by having a more restrictive list of exemptions. In March 2019, the EU passed a new copyright directive called Article 13 that will bring a new content recognition system to bear on social media platforms. It will detect copyrighted materials