‘Sharing is Caring’: Copyright Metaphors and Online Sharing Norms

Because no one knows it’s illegal, and no one cares. It’s simply the language of the internet. 1 Copyright is under contest in Australia amid growing digital cultures of sharing. Using metaphor as a frame for analysis, this study applies internet search data (Google Trends) methods to visualise Australian online information-seeking patterns for metaphors related to copyright and sharing. An overview of legal metaphors of online copyright (‘piracy’, ‘war on copyright’) and metaphors of digital sharing (‘sharing is caring’, ‘sharing economy’) leads to a critical examination of the ‘metaphor struggles’ between the rhetoric of copyright infringement and sharing cultures promoted by social media. Key findings presented are of decreased information seeking for copyright metaphors and increased information seeking for sharing metaphors. Online information-seeking patterns, as visualised by internet search data, represent a form of public mobilisation. Visualisation of these patterns of public information seeking for metaphors of copyright and sharing demonstrates shifting conceptions of copyright in contemporary digital cultures. This article concludes by raising a potential relationship between rising ethics of online sharing norms and diminishing legitimacy of online copyright, as the legal metaphor of copyright appears to transition through the metaphor cycle. study demonstrates two key findings on Australian online-search patterns for information seeking about copyright and sharing. Visualisation of public information-seeking trends through Google Trends reveals declining information seeking for copyright together with increasing information seeking for sharing and sharing cultures. These findings are interesting because they point to an emerging potential relationship between rising ethics of online sharing norms and diminishing legitimacy of online copyright. Examination of internet-search trends for the metaphors of copyright infringement and online sharing provides insight into the rhetorical strategies of contemporary Australian copyright policy.


Introduction
This article argues Australian public conceptions of the intellectual property metaphor of copyright are in flux within digital cultures of sharing.This argument emerges from the findings of a study using internet search data on online informationseeking patterns by Australians.The study is in three parts.The first part examines the competing metaphorical strategies between online copyright infringement and digital cultures of sharing, such as those promoted by social media.The second part sets out the study and the key findings of decreased information seeking for copyright-related metaphors and increased information seeking for sharing-related metaphors.The third part argues these patterns of information seeking, as a form of public mobilisation, 2 are consistent with shifting conceptions of metaphors of online copyright and sharing in contemporary Australian society.
Metaphor analysis is a valuable means to theorise the internet. 3Conception of the internet, as a combination of both technology and practice, has historically relied on metaphor.Emergent technologies required familiar labels to navigate unfamiliar digital environments and were often 'metaphorical loans from an analogue context'. 4Metaphors make meaning across discourses, Volume 3 (2) 2021 Chelberg 63 Metaphors of copyright leverage a discourse of theft, war and deception. 17This strategy marginalises online sharing practices as illegal-'how can one argue for theft?' 18 -and suggests participants lack moral standards. 19However, research shows acts of online copyright infringement may not be considered morally wrong 20 or, consistent with collaborative online sharing norms, may even contribute to the 'greater good of society'. 21is leaves copyright under contest in Australia amid growing digital cultures of sharing.Contemporary online practices reveal a 'disparity between [copyright] law and cultural use of copyrighted material'. 22In a general sense, online sharing of copyrighted digital content on file-sharing or social media platforms without permission is an infringement of copyright, notwithstanding that content was freely available online. 23Rates of unlawful online media consumption remain high despite educational campaigns, law-enforcement operations, reviews of Australia's copyright regime and increased availability of legal content streaming services. 24At the same time, social media platforms with a 'philosophy of sharing' promote broad sharing of digital content (such as image sharing on Instagram) irrespective of copyright status. 25Stated motivations for infringement include, 'it's what everyone does' and 'it's only fair', while free and accessible online content is an expectation for a majority of Australian consumers. 26Normative practices of online sharing are consistent with findings by Dootson and Suzor, who argue changing online behavioural norms are significant contributors to copyright infringement.They found 'infringing behaviour is normatively acceptable' and typified in this interview response: '[w]ell I think most people would class it as acceptable, even though it's illegal … I think it's just become the norm'. 27Such well-established digital practices of online media consumption 28 reflect public attitudes of indifference 29 or irrelevance 30 towards online copyright.Copyright infringement does not appear to be the objective of broad cultures of normative digital sharing; rather, motivated by participation, digital cultures are blind to legal constructs of copyright.
Normative online sharing practices are fundamental to contemporary digital cultures.John argues sharing practices are so critical to digital society that 'ours is the age of sharing'. 31Digital technologies, particularly social media and smartphones, have enlarged online sharing to include a wide range of social practices. 32Online sharing practices take place across a network of cooperative platforms for participatory activities of communication, socialisation, entertainment, knowledge and research. 33ustralian internet users report 'sharing' to be the second most common reason for using social media. 34As online sharing practices are adopted and repeated across the network, broad expectations of online sharing emerge as the cultural norm among internet communities. 35Online sharing platforms encourage sharing practices that extend beyond tangible objects (files, photos, links and recommendations) to 'fuzzy' imperatives to share ('share your life', 'share your world' and, simply, 'share!'). 36The Volume 3 (2) 2021 Chelberg blurred the limits of online sharing practices and contributed to 'share everything' notions of sharing. 38With sharing as its 'core cultural value', 39 sharing practices form an online ethical framework where sharing is a threshold activity to participation in digital cultures. 40In contemporary digital society, sharing is both the act and ethic of online participation.
In a life lived in (not with) media, 41 community values associated with 'real-life' sharing have meaning for online sharing practices.Imbued with this 'semantic richness', online digital sharing metaphors carry rhetorical force to influence online behaviour. 42Online platforms draw on powerful connotations of sharing as a social good to engage and activate users. 43Indeed, Facebook leveraged the 'warm glow' around sharing when it positioned the values of sharing at its core.Mark Zuckerberg characterised sharing as one of Facebook's fundamental activities: 'When share more, the world becomes more open and connected'. 44aring metaphors encourage user participation in online sharing practices and reinforce cooperative behavioural norms by association with positive social values.The metaphor 'sharing is caring' explicitly expresses this online sharing ethic to press participation in online cultures, and, at the same time, designates not sharing as 'uncaring'.Therefore, metaphors of sharing both aid conception (what can be done online) and direct behaviour (what should be done online), in turn, reinforcing the imperative to share.In digital communities where sharing is the 'constitutive act of being online', 45 users are expected to share with their (online) contacts and (social media) friends.The ethics of sharing in a digital society mean that 'good subjects post, update, like, tweet, retweet, and most importantly, share'. 46Sharing metaphors such as 'like', 'friend', 'community' and 'social network' promote online practices that prioritise participation in digital cultures.Digital cultures have shaped both the language and conception of online sharing-from early literal 'time-sharing' of computers, through 'disk-sharing' and 'file-sharing', to broad notions of contemporary 'sharing' of digital content and personal information online. 47mpeting metaphors of copyright and sharing signify tension between intellectual property rights and online sharing practices in a contemporary digital society.Through their respective metaphors, the contest between online 'piracy' and 'sharing' is made explicit: It seems that sharing, like stealing, has entered the language of digital cultures due to mere ideological reasons.Both terms are used to justify new forms of social practices morally.Sharing is good, stealing is bad.But copying is neither good nor bad.Copying is neither sharing nor stealing, it is just copying, multiplying. 48rfare-based copyright metaphors frame online participatory practices as criminal and pirates as enemies of creativity. 49In contrast, sharing metaphors advance the 'culture' and 'good' of sharing, where sharing is the primary act of online participation. 50Identification of the 'metaphor struggles' between copyright and sharing provides a lens through which to examine public conceptions of online copyright infringement against normalised online sharing practices.

Study and Key Findings
This article uses the digital methodology of internet search data (Google Trends) to examine the 'metaphor struggles' between online copyright infringement and digital sharing cultures.Internet methods are used to explore information-seeking patterns for key metaphors of copyright and sharing and are shown to be an interesting approach to consider shifting Australian conceptions of online copyright. 51ternet search data is a growing digital methodology anticipated to have valuable application in the areas of policy and law. 52nternet search data records the search terms entered into internet search engines to reveal the information-seeking behaviours of people for facts, places, people and topics. 53Google publishes its internet search data through Google Trends. 54Internet search data has been used to study a wide range of humanities and social sciences topics, 55 including law, with emerging research using it to explore online copyright infringement. 56Studies have demonstrated a correlation between internet search data and social behaviours or attitudes, including public attention, 57 public interest 58 and changes in economic and social perceptions. 59Internet search data records cumulative online information-seeking activity by population (specific to topic, time and location) and, in this sense, represents a 'form of societal mobilisation'. 60nventional research on online copyright infringement research has relied on self-reporting by survey participants about their online copyright practices. 61Yet, survey data has limitations for online copyright research. 62Critically, survey participants tend to underreport illegal or sensitive behaviour (known as social desirability bias). 63Copyright infringement survey participants are less likely to self-report infringing behaviour to avoid penalty and because infringement is known to be technically (if not normatively) wrong. 64ternet search data offers advantages for online copyright research.The availability of anonymous online information-seeking data has particular application to investigate behaviour sensitive to social desirability bias where the internet itself facilitates the behaviour in question, namely, online copyright infringement. 65Further, search engines are known to operate as 'gateways' to online copyright infringement, particularly for first-time users of unauthorised content sources. 66Internet search methods thus present an alternative 'infoveillance' approach to study online copyright practices.In recording one of the primary activities of contemporary human life-searching for information online-internet search methods hold potential for sociolegal research. 67Internet search data complements traditional data collection methods because it discloses uncensored information-seeking behaviours 68 and represents a form of public mobilisation on topics of social interest. 69olume 3 (2) 2021

Method to Visualise Metaphor Patterns
This section describes the method used to map internet-search trends for key metaphors of copyright and sharing to visualise potential changes in conceptions of copyright, an approach adapted from a methodology shown to map changes in social attitudes. 70The method uses a multi-step process to generate a Google Trends Search Query Index (SQI) for 'metaphor clusters' 71 related to copyright and sharing.The generated SQI is a visual representation of public information-seeking patterns for each metaphor cluster.
As a first step, three words or phrases were selected to represent a metaphor cluster from dominant and recurring themes in the academic, media and public discourse on online copyright infringement and digital sharing practices.For each metaphor cluster, words were chosen based on their strength to act as 'shorthand' within the discourse. 72The selected words are central metaphors that signify cultural norms about online copyright and sharing practices.The words 'copyright law', 'copyright piracy' and 'war on copyright' were selected to represent the copyright or piracy metaphor cluster.These key piracy phrases are based on warfare metaphors that scaffold a 'rhetorical construction of [copyright infringement] as criminal'. 73The words 'sharing economy', 'sharing culture' and 'sharing is caring' were selected to represent the sharing metaphor cluster.The phrase 'sharing is caring' is a key slogan of the sharing discourse, as it is the 'warm glow around sharing' that promotes 'sharing with the people we care about'. 74As a metaphor, 'sharing is caring' leverages strong semantic association with the social good to endorse online sharing norms.Further, by activating these associations, the phrase is observed to 'push back against the criminalisation of culture'. 75plicit limits are acknowledged with the phrases selected for each metaphor cluster.The metaphor terms in each cluster were chosen based on their prevalence in the respective discourses on copyright and sharing; it follows that selection of a different set of terms would give rise to different findings.It is not the aim nor claim of this study the selected terms will capture all internet search interest on the topics of piracy or sharing.In addition, due to the broad or multiple meanings of some terms, both metaphor cluster SQIs may include unrelated results.It is also true that only a proportion of 'sharing' searches are related to information seeking about sharing copyright material, while 'copyright' searches will capture general interest and legal research searches, as well as information seeking about how to access copyright material.However, these visualised findings are interesting, not for the volume of searches, but for the shifting patterns of public information seeking for metaphors related to owning and sharing within digital cultures.
Information-seeking trends for each metaphor cluster were then visualised with a series of SQIs to show relative internet search interest over a 17-year period from 2004 to 2021. 76The SQIs for each metaphor cluster were generated by inputting the words as a combined search into Google Trends using settings for Australian web searches since 2004. 77Screenshots of the SQIs were taken of the Google Trends website and are shown in Figures 1 to 4. The SQI findings were noted against relevant events (e.g., legislative changes or technology releases) representing key developments in copyright law and online sharing practices.A comparative SQI over the period 2004 to 2021 was generated to show relative changes in search trends for piracy and sharing metaphors.By way of reference, a SQI for unrelated benchmark terms, 'love' and 'life', 78 is shown first in Figure 1 as an indicator of stable general internet search volume over the same period.The SQI for combined search terms 'love + life' displays stable search interest between January 2004 (71) and January 2021 (63).The Benchmark SQI acts as a useful comparator for visualising changing patterns in public information-seeking interest for piracy and sharing search terms over time.

Metaphor Pattern Findings
The Search Query Indexes for the piracy and sharing metaphor clusters are set out in Figures 2 to 5.  81 and government review into modernisation of Australian copyright laws (2018). 82These events are noted to background developments in Australian copyright law and policy, and while not suggested to be causative of information seeking for copyright, they may have contributed to shifting patterns of public interest.widespread (79%) adoption of social media (2017) and daily use (79%) of social media (2020). 84The SQI for the sharing metaphor clusters visualises increasing search trends for key sharing metaphors and is consistent with greater numbers of Australian internet users seeking online information on the topic of sharing and sharing cultures.

Comparing Metaphor Clusters
The overall downward trend for piracy metaphors and upward trend for the sharing metaphors is demonstrated in the Comparative SQI in Figure 4, which displays the combined words of the piracy (blue) against the sharing (red) metaphor clusters.The series of SQIs visualise shifting Australian patterns of information seeking for metaphor clusters relating to online copyright infringement and sharing cultures.The findings show a trend towards fewer searches using key piracy metaphors and greater searches using key sharing metaphors.A linear trendline view of the Comparative SQI showing relative public search interest for copyright and sharing is illustrated in Figure 5. Plotting annual relative search interest for each topic, Figure 5 visualises a decreasing volume of public information seeking for copyright metaphors set against increasing volume of public information seeking for sharing metaphors.As a form of public mobilisation, these findings offer interesting insight into the 'metaphorical struggles' between key metaphors of copyright and sharing.Visualised metaphor internet search patterns are consistent with trends identified in empirical findings of traditional surveys on online copyright infringement as well as internet activity and social media practices, 85 and have relevance for conceptions of owning and sharing in a digital age.
This study has used internet search data to visually demonstrate two key findings about Australian patterns of online-search interest for topics of copyright and sharing.The first finding shows declining information seeking for copyright-related topics, while the second finding shows increasing information seeking for sharing-related topics.Diminishing public online-search interest for copyright is consistent with both empirical findings from traditional surveys on copyright infringement and prior research by Dootson and Suzor that copyright may be losing its normative legitimacy. 86This finding also raises questions about the reduced normative value of copyright piracy metaphors as a strategy to influence contemporary digital activities.The second finding demonstrates that, over the same period, increasing public online-search interest for sharing and sharing cultures is consistent with research that sharing is a fundamental activity of digital participation 87 and is also reflective of enlarged influence of sharing metaphors in online communities facilitated by social media.
Mapped together using Google Trends over 17 years visualises an opposite trendline between public patterns of information seeking for metaphors of copyright (decreasing) against information seeking for metaphors of sharing (increasing).Arising as an interpretation of the primary findings, this raises a potential association between observed patterns of information seeking for topics of copyright and sharing.While the findings do not support evidence of a true causal relationship, the negative correlation visualises a potential interconnection between rising ethics of online sharing practices and declining social legitimacy of online copyright amid contemporary digital cultures of sharing.While this potential relationship is observed due to the terms selected for binary comparison, it discloses an interesting question for further investigation. 85Department of Infrastructure, "2020 Consumer Copyright Infringement Survey"; Sensis, Yellow Social Media Report 2020 -Consumers. 86Dootson, "The Game of Clones and the Australia Tax"; Suzor, "Free-Riding, Cooperation, and Peaceful Revolutions in Copyright"; Department of Infrastructure, "2020 Consumer Copyright Infringement Survey"; MacNeill, "Torrenting Game of Thrones." 87John, The Age of Sharing; Kennedy, "Rhetorics of Sharing."The limits of this study are acknowledged.As a developing methodology, internet search data findings are exploratory rather than conclusive. 88Limitations of internet search data include lack of information on user motivation, 89 changes in search terms over time and representation of the wider population. 90The author recognises that the low volume of searches for the queried search terms reflects the fact that copyright and sharing are not high-volume, popular search topics in Australia, 91 and nor does online-search interest equate to a measure of public salience. 92Therefore, although findings are treated with caution and triangulated with traditional datasets, 93 visualised information-seeking patterns represent a valuable approach to identify broader trends in public interest. 94

Shifting Conceptions of Copyright
This article focused on metaphors in online copyright infringement and sharing practices.Making explicit the strategic role of metaphor is important because the efficacy of copyright law relies not only on legal sanction 95 but also upon public conceptions of copyright-conceptions that are constructed by metaphors.Online metaphors are the 'engineering' words used to fill the language and conceptual void created by emergent technologies; the 'mental models' relied on by internet users to label and navigate digital landscapes.Legal and social metaphors both explain and predict behaviour, thereby reinforcing their imperative power.However, metaphor struggles occur when 'approved' metaphorical concepts are in transition, 'shaped by conditions that once prevailed, but do so no longer'. 96Shifting social norms are, therefore, revealed in the evolution of metaphorical concepts and provide a mechanism to examine interactions between language and the law. 97Levi identified a cyclical process for legal concepts: from creation, where words are 'tried out'; through a period where the concept is 'more or less fixed'; and, finally, where the concept breaks down because the 'suggestive influence of the word is no longer desired': … in speaking of metaphors, the word starts out to free thought and ends by enslaving it.The movement of concepts into and out of the law makes the point.If the society has begun to see certain significant similarities or differences, the comparison emerges with a word.When the word is finally accepted, it becomes a legal concept.Its meaning continues to change… The words change to receive the content which the community gives to them. 98ntests in legal and social concepts are, therefore, voiced in contests between metaphors.Just as competing metaphors signify competing values, 99 tensions between metaphors of copyright and sharing are consistent with the contested status of online copyright.Therefore, disputes between metaphors of the copyright and sharing discourses provide insight into disputed online copyright and sharing practices in contemporary digital cultures.
This study has demonstrated trends toward decreasing internet searches for key copyright metaphors and, over the same period, increasing internet searches for key sharing metaphors, raising a potential relationship between these trends.The trends identified are consistent with fundamental tensions between restrictive online copyright infringement laws and expansive sharing practices of digital cultures. 100The study's findings visualise shifting patterns of public information seeking consistent with the metaphorical conceptions of digital copyright and sharing undergoing a period of transition.The conceptual transition of copyright is consistent with continued high rates of online copyright infringement 101 and observations that the cultural construct of copyright may be losing its normative legitimacy. 102At the same time, widespread participation in broad online sharing practices is promoted through digital conceptions of online sharing as a social good. 103At the intersection of shifting conceptions, 'metaphor struggles' reveal how 'technology, … law and the social realm grind their understandings around particularly challenging events'. 104Copyright, as a metaphor of intellectual property, may be in transition through the 'breakdown' stage of the metaphor cycle. 105These findings raise questions for the continued rhetorical strategy of piracy, where copyright's legitimacy is disputed by rising cultures of online sharing. 106These patterns of information seeking, as a form of public mobilisation, can be understood in terms of disparity between conceptions of copyright piracy and digital sharing practices, and cast doubt over the ongoing effectiveness of piracy metaphors to guide social behaviour.Acknowledgement of these shifting metaphorical conceptions of copyright and sharing is relevant because 'legal frameworks that support them [copyright] are not intrinsic truth but cultural constructs building from competing social demands.Laws are seldom fixed and absolute, but simply reflect the current state of any cultural contest'. 107itical analysis of legal and social metaphors provides a framework to deconstruct their normative influence in contemporary online activities.Metaphors are integral to constructions of emerging and abstract technologies where public conceptions and legal responses are limited by the legitimacy of the chosen metaphor. 108Metaphors in legal discourse are signifiers of the conceptual 'right', 109 but their rhetorical influence is continually subject to shifting public conceptions and practices.As online copyright is contested by contemporary digital cultures, Google Trends' visualisation of shifting patterns of public information seeking for metaphors of copyright and sharing is consistent with changing Australian conceptions of online copyright, access and ownership.

Conclusion
Acknowledging the limits of traditional copyright survey methods, this study adopted an exploratory methodology to investigate the utility of internet search data for online copyright research.Internet search data (Google Trends) is well-suited to study social problems, such as online copyright infringement, facilitated by the internet and affected by social desirability bias.The findings visualised changing patterns of metaphor usage consistent with widely observed patterns in contemporary online copyright and sharing practices.This paper contributes a clearer understanding of the role of metaphors in contested online practices of copyright infringement and digital sharing norms-the 'copyright wars' against 'sharing is caring'.