COPYRIGHT PROTECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS PUBLISHED ON SOCIAL MEDIA THROUGH THE COURT PRACTICE IN NORTH MACEDONIA

Abstract

In the 21^st century, the expansion of the Internet and the emergence of the social media changed the world we know. The social media, originally intended to serve as a tool to facilitate communication among peers, in the last 15 years completely redefined  the everyday communication and created the digital cultural norm of sharing. The social media made it easier to access endless displays of content, images, photographs, gifs and videos, and made the oversharing the new normal in the digital world. But is the content shared on social media platforms considered intellectual property? In this online world, how free is free?

As the content becomes more accessible on the Internet, and particularly on social media, the line between ownership, originality, sharing, downloading, and posting has been blurred. Although the Internet creates an illusion that everything online is free, one cannot just take photographs or content from a social media feed and use it as their own. However, the modern culture of sharing makes the detection of the copyright violations more difficult.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the most recent court practice in North Macedonia in the field of the copyright infringement on the social media. The authors will study the reasoning of the courts within respect to the protection of the copyright holders and establishing that their right has been infringed vis a vis the user and its rights. Finally, the liability of the social media providers will be elaborated and compared to the traditional liability of publishers.