The continuous evolution and development of the online produsage environment raises issues of product and property.
I recently discovered this fashion blog karlascloset.com, by a twenty-year-old American fashionista. Karla blogs primarily about fashion; she posts photos of her various outfits to her blog for all to see and comment on. It seems she has acquired a large number of fans and followers who like her style as much as I do. It also appears that the publicity she has gained from the popularity of her blog has resulted in interviews, magazine appearances and job opportunities. (She even got a mention in this article by The Australian).
Social media and the global connectivity of the Internet have enabled this blogger (like many others) to put herself out there; reach a vast audience; and share her thoughts, personality, creativity and style, expressed through text and images. She has constructed and presented herself as a marketable ‘product’ – a product that she reaps the benefits from.
Karla’s blog includes a clause outlining copyright laws regarding the text, site design, logos, graphics, icons and images. But what about her own personal style illustrated in her photos? Lets say that a fan of Karla’s blog hopes to achieve the same success by creating her own fashion blog. The fan has adopted Karla’s sense of style, and attempts to recreate Karla’s looks, posting photos of these outfits to her own blog. Do intellectual property laws apply to this scenario?
The Internet fosters user-led contribution. Users of products and services, as well as fans and enthusiasts, can use the Internet as a tool to share their ideas with one another (and the big businesses watching closely). Bruns says “Sharing and collaboratively improving their designs … such designs are then turned into physical objects” (Bruns 2008, 390). Such collaboration can lead to improvements in existing products and the creation of entirely new products. If a big business takes a consumer’s imput onboard and acts upon their ideas, what right does a consumer have to the original idea that he/she offered?
These new media issues have surfaced in recent times, and will become more prevalent in the future.
Tags: DIY, production, produsage
