The issue of ownership, copies, and copyright is one not often though about, but is a large factor in the legal management of many digital images. Sturken and Cartwright note how in today's digital age, "digital imaging has made the possibilities for reproduction and ownership of images virtually limitless. This raises issues about the status of rights to reproductions and changes in the legal structures through which the circulation of reproductions is regulated"(Sturken and Cartwright, 204). Similarly, "images and media forms are no longer so tightly bound to the idea of representing a real [image], and visual technologies are no longer as pervasively regarded as replicating or objectively performing the work of the eye" (220).
Many famous images, such as that of Che Guevara, mentioned by Sturken and Cartwright, is one that has been reproduced in many different formats to elicit different meanings, or to convey a specific connotative meaning- often protesters edited images that had connotative images suggesting Che was the leader that Cuba was looking for. As stated, "the profileration of images through reproduction also means that images can be more easily accompanied by different kinds of text, which can dramatically change the signifcation of the image"(203). People are able to alter this image much more freely today online than in the past, when use of this image became a legal battle for ownership.
What comes into question is where the boundaries between an original work and a copy/copyright come into play. Often times an image is posted- in this instance is a photo of a wide eyed girl. To give a brief background, this girl featured above posted a "cover" of Justin Beiber's song "Boyfriend" but made the lyrics all about her stalker like tendencies. The video received a lot of attention and thus the meme of her was created, and people simply insert text that is something a "crazy girlfriend" might do. This skews the connotative meaning of the image to that even if someone had not seen her video- they could still understand that she is "the overly attached girlfriend". Her expectant look and wide eyes would likely be the signifier of both photos- signifying that she is happy. The signified, is that she is an insane because of the accompaniment of the text along with the image of the girl. The overall meaning of both images would be that this girlfriend is too attached/mentally unstable because of her behavior- which is uncharacteristic of someone in a normal, healthy relationship.
