Rhetorical Velocity

As we know, if not before reading this article, that copyright laws are a slippery and expansive to maneuver down. Not only for those dealing with copyright, but those appropriating these laws and to us students who try to make sense of it all in a Rhetorical Theory class.
If I were to explain the "Maggie" case in the simplest way from Rodolfo and Rife's Rhetorical Velocity and Copyright, I would describe her case as a student whose photo was taken by the University and reappropriated, for their own intended use, without permission from the subject. We begin to understand the idea of the "commons as a place where what is or once was owned can be reowned by another." (236) It is quite difficult to define the commons when dealing with these cultural and ntural properties,"because cultural properties-unlike natural resources-are not exhaustible, and in fact depend upon appropriation to survive." (238)

Rhetorical velocity strives to give us some context to the reasoning behind why someone would want to recompose a text and use for third parties (240), and how would this reappropriation be beneficial in the long term or the short term. I do see how it is difficult to deem MSU in the wrong here because there was no "activist" context to the photo of Maggie playing in the snow. In the photo of Maggie, there is clearly no means to identify her as a student protestor. If their sole purpose was to protest and make a stance, create a conversation, then I find it doubtful that they wouldn't have anticipated media coverage. However, I do think that the University should have tracked down the student and asked her permission. As I unpack what it means to be in the "commons", I'm sure one could make a very strong argument (as Rodolfo and Rife point out) that Maggie's photo could be considered a part of the commons. It is hard for me to think of the University as "owning" the photo because someone else could have very well posted that same photo to social media, or to a website or printed it out and put it on a poster.