Review of Related Literature

This study aims to explore the impending harm on intellectual properties of copyright
owners from the burgeoning application Tiktok. Corinne Tan in her study entitled “Regulating
Content on Social Media : Copyright, Terms of Service and Technological Features” published
in 2018, examined the generative activities performed by hypothetical users, supported by
empirical research, and discovered that despite the regulations established by social media
platforms themselves, it is also these platforms that influence the users to behave inconsistently
with copyright laws. This ‘seduction’ into performing practices that leads to misuse and
infringement of copyright has normalized such practice in platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest,
Youtube, Twitter, and Wikipedia.
This strain between copyright and new media is further delved into in “An analysis of the
fundamental tensions between copyright and social media: the legal implications of sharing
images on Instagram” a study by Bosher H. et. al. in 2019. Copyright is established as inherent in
each milestone of human development and technology, and as human life progresses a tension is
created between social networking sites and copyright. Bosher implies that there is a conflict
created from the two antithetical ethos of copyright and social networking sites—the restriction
of acts of copying and communication to the public for the former and the promotion of sharing
by the latter. The study analyses the copyright infringement of protected works in Instagram as
opposed to the licensing of copyright and user-agreement that a user has to accede to before
using the application. What transpired is a paradox of confusion because of the contradicting
principles of copyright and the ethos of social media has led to the vulnerability of users like a
flock of sheep marching to a cliff of copyright infringement.
In a more specific application of this paradigm, in Adam Eric Berkowitz’ “Are Youtube
and Facebook canceling Classical Musicians? The harmful effects of Automated Copyright
Enforcement on Social Media Platforms” published in 2021, he narrated how classical musicians
found social media platforms as a virtual alternative for recitals and concerts for purposes of
income and establishing social media presence at the time of the pandemic. However, the issue
begins with the failure of the machinery of these social media platforms in classifying which
content are original recordings and copyrighted performances as they are exposed to the public
domain. The hashing and classification methods used by these social media giants as a form of
its automated copyright enforcement system fails to distinguish between an original recording
and that of the recorded performance which both are subject to copyright protection. Whether a
material is infringing the copyright of another, the automation via systems like “Content ID” and
“Rights Manager” of Youtube and Facebook respectively carries with them the potential of
misidentifying a work and might label a material violative of copyright laws when it fact it is not
and vice versa.

Tan, C. (2018). Regulating Content on Social Media : Copyright, Terms of Service and
Technological Features.
H, B., & S, Y. (2019). Regulating Content on Social Media : Copyright, Terms of Service and
Technological Features, 33(2), 164–186. https://doi.org/International Review of Law,
Computers & Technology.

Berkowitz, Adam Eric. "ARE YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK CANCELING CLASSICAL MUSICIANS? THE
HARMFUL EFFECTS OF AUTOMATED COPYRIGHT ENFORCEMENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORMS." Notes, vol. 78, no. 2, Dec. 2021, pp. 177+. Gale Academic OneFile,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A685618108/AONE?u=phcicm&sid=bookmark-
AONE&xid=82c1d92a. Accessed 9 Dec. 2021.