An Educational Website on Copyright Law and Remix Art

Abstract

Technological developments have led to various types of information (i.e., art, music, ideas, etc) that can be spread widely throughout the web for people to view, use, and share. The growth of technology and its capabilities has led to the popularity of remix art. Legal debate, however, has also increased as copyright law and the fair use doctrine has not grown at the same rate as technology. In this thesis paper and web design project, I present my research on remix art, copyright law, the fair use doctrine, and the effects of each. In the paper, I provide an overview of each topic. I also discuss how a website can be used as an engaging learning tool, how information architecture can create a responsive and accessible website, how the human-centered design theory promotes learning, and how the effectiveness of a website as a learning tool can be measured. I designed my website to be an online learning tool for undergraduate students so that they may better understand how to use and create legal remix art. The research used in this paper and website have been limited to examples of remix art, basic guidelines for legal remix art, court case examples, and the creative commons. My website is based on a human-centered design approach and other multimedia design methods that parallel the topic of remix art through the use of wikis, polls, and quizzes. A list of references was also included to guide and promote further study on the topic, as this paper and website was designed to give an overview of the topics rather than to provide legal advice. I prepared this thesis paper and website project by considering the content, target population, and design theories individually and as interacting factors.