Information Technology Reference
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authorwouldownthecopyrighttoapublication.Thisissueraisesthequestionthat
ifIparticipateinastudy,typingmycommentsinanemailoronyourlistserv,doI
retaincopyrighttomywords,ordoIforfeitmycopyrightbyagreeingtopartici-
pateinyourstudy?IfIpostmyexperienceonabulletinboardorinablog,doI
retaincopyrightofsomethingI“published”online,ordoesmypostingonlinemake
myexperiencepublicinformationandthereforesubjecttofairuse?
Whenattemptingtodetermineownership,itisunclearwhetherapostingis
owned by the author, the community where it was posted or sent, or anyone
who has access to it in some manner (Roberts, Smith & Pollock, 2004). If we
looktolegalexpertsregardingcopyright,wearelikelytohearaboutissuessuch
as “Implied License”, whereby it is assumed that whoever posted the message
hasgrantedanimpliedlicensetootherstoatleastmakecopiesofthatinforma-
tion(Smedinghoff,1996c).Impliedlicense,however,doesnotclarifytheques-
tion of ownership as much as it simply provides a structure for granting
permissiontouseonlineinformation.
Implicit in the discussion of ownership is how we, as researchers, attribute
information. If we state something like “according to Schreiner,” we naturally
providedatathatattributethecommentstoaparticularauthor.Ifweincludea
referencefromWikipedia,wehaveastandardbywhichwegiveawebaddress
anddateofaccess,attributingtheinformationtotheweb-basedencyclopedia.
Soitstandstoreasonthatifwereadapersonalblogwemightconsiderprovid-
ingthesameauthorship.Aswithotherissues,thequestioniswheretodrawthe
line.Isthereadifferenceinattributingauthorshipbetweenalengthyemailand
ablog?Isthisanissuethatwecansimplyaddressininformedconsentorinthe
openingpagesofresearchfindings,makingclearwhenweareandaren'tgoing
toidentifyauthorship?
Ownership questions continue to evolve as our use and understanding of
onlineenvironmentscontinuetodevelop.Asonlineinteractionbecomesmore
mainstream,itissafetoassumethatlegalscholarswillplayagreaterroleindeter-
mininghowweshouldhandlemanyofthesetypesofissues.Inthemeantime,
researchersareencouragedtoexercisejudgmentandtobeclearwithresearch
participantsabouttheirworkingdefinitionofwhatconstitutesownership.
Use of a virtual persona
(Second Life, chat environments,
deception, etc.)
Virtualpersonaerepresentanewanduniquechallengeintheonlineenviron-
ment.Aswewritethisbook,researchersarebeginningtoventureintoSecond
Life,whereindividualscancreateanalterego,avirtualpersonathatrepresents
theminwhateverwaytheywouldliketoberepresented.Inthisenvironment,
does“virtualTom”directlyrepresent“real-lifeTom?”Doesitmatter?Dowe,as
researchers,attributecontributionsto“virtualTom”or“real-lifeTom?”
