ABSTRACT
Social media provides a scenario in which the possibility of socializing, the desire for popularity and the opportunity to monetize their productions seduces users. The outstanding growth of user-generated content in Latin America has created a new market supported by users, predominantly adolescents, who are very enthusiastic for material produced not just by big media corporations but by other users commonly named YouTubers who share their content on social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. But this new kind of entertainment has raised legal concerns about how media companies protect the private data of the clients and the intellectual property rights of the content shared inside their platforms. In 2014, many well-known Latin American influencers, such as Werevertumorro, were forced to temporarily eliminate their material from YouTube because of an intellectual property legal issue. This, however, was not caused by a violation of YouTube's user policies as it usually happens. But a company called “W2M Enterprises” appropriated all the content produced by these influencers and other YouTubers without giving a proper share of their incomes. This case had deep legal consequences for the user-generated content market, particularly regarding the copyright of the material produced and commercialized on social media. This chapter will focus mainly on the analysis of The Werevertumorro case. As it will be possible to observe through the analysis of this case, besides the important growth of the user-generated content market in Latin America, there are still key legal lacks that should be fulfilled to guarantee its economic and social sustainability in the forthcoming years, this is not only important for those companies and individuals who commercialize their production in platforms such as YouTube or TikTok, but to all individuals and social organizations who make use of social media as spaces for political, social, and cultural expression as well.
