The challenges of intellectual property for users of Social Networking Sites: a case study of Ravelry

Abstract

This paper examines how the complexity of motivations and practices found in a specialist social networking site intersect with the institution of intellectual property (IP). IP is a set of conventions and legal practices which evolved in a very different environment of production and distribution. In a co-creative social networking site we find a concatenation of amateurs, semi-professionals and professionals, occupying multiple roles in gifting economies, reputation economies, monetised charitable economies and full commercial economies. People use, buy, sell, give away, and consume in this mixed economy that can be characterised as a 'social network market' [8]. The users of online social networking sites (SNS) find themselves having to come to grips with the complexity of IP law in order to participate fully. This paper uses Ravelry, a specialist SNS for knitters and spinners, to analyse the negotiations that take place around IP in a social network market, in particular the way the discourse of copyright is mobilised to negotiate the territory between amateurs and professionals.