Who actually owns the forum content?

[stevetorres]

I need some clarifications on these topics

1. Who owns the content of a forum that has been submitted in a forum post, if there were no prior ownership conditions put about it in the post? Shouldn’t that be made mandatory?

2. What is the method to ensure that the forum owner always holds the right over the content? Is there any way to make sure the content is not borrowed or copied by others?

3. Who owns the content if it has been posted somewhere else too? In that case, can anybody else other than the original owner claim rights?

Please give your opinions.

[simplyamazing12]

I believe it is your content if the poster submitted content to the forum. By signing up to post or submitting the post, they have given you the writes to the content posted. Plain and simple.

In many cases, the poster has the option to delete his/her post but in most cases, that action is nulled after another post is made. Also, if you look at when the poster registers on the forum, they agree to the Terms and Services agreement so if they ever bring anyone to court over this issue, the forum OWNER will always win.

[loco]

In my opinion, the site owner owns the rights to all content.
If it gets copied, they can contact those sites and ask them to drop it, but it's going to happen. Scrapper sites are out there, I just focus on my site, building rank so it doesn't matter if it gets copied.

[birdie]

Its going to vary from country to country depending on the local laws.

Its going to depend on your forums rules that members agree to when they join. Do they agree to assign copyright over to you as part of the rules?

I picked up this snippet a while ago:

By default in the non-forum world, authors own the copyright on their own creations. This is an automatic right of the creator of the work, so technically the creator of the post is the copyright owner. However, by posting on a forum, you would have accepted the terms and conditions when you join a forum that covers this type of publication and what it implies. In posting you are accepting that your creative content (ie your post) will be published by the forum administrator and owner, and also that they have the right to edit or do what ever they like with your post as they see fit.
But does that mean that when material is publicly posted in a forum that this implies transfer of copyright ownership? The copyright lawyers can not even agree on this. The reality of the matter seems to be that there is no clear legal precedent yet made on this matter, and therefore until there is, then the issue will remain vague and uncertain. It has never been tested in court, let alone the issue of legal jurisdiction as to country of the Administrator, the country of the servers the forum is hosted in, etc.

Who owns forum posts? | Forum Doc

[probafix]

I believe it is your content if the poster submitted content to the forum. By signing up to post or submitting the post, they have given you the writes to the content posted. Plain and simple.

In many cases, the poster has the option to delete his/her post but in most cases, that action is nulled after another post is made. Also, if you look at when the poster registers on the forum, they agree to the Terms and Services agreement so if they ever bring anyone to court over this issue, the forum OWNER will always win.

Yes..i agree..

[vasilisa]

Hi)
site owners of course owns the rights to all content but forums is another story..
here any person could copy some posts for selfusing, i dont think its a problem)

[birdie]

:frustrated:

Yes..i agree..

Care to explain why you agree? The copyright lawyers do not agree, so would love to know why you think that they are wrong.

[steve123]

The site owner owns the rights to all content.

[birdie]

The site owner owns the rights to all content.

Care to explain why? Can you justify your claim? The lawyers that specialise in copyright law do not agree.

[simplyamazing12]

Care to explain why? Can you justify your claim? The lawyers that specialise in copyright law do not agree.

There is really nothing to explain. The user who makes the posts had to register on the forum. During the registration process, in the Terms of Service and Regulations, they agreed.

By agreeing, they handed all rights over to the forum owner and the host even. If this issue went to court I know my host would back me up on this lawsuit because it was signed off on.

The user who made the posts basically signed a contract. And your post is ridiculous. The posts aren't copyrighted.

[birdie]

So why do the copyright lawyers disagree with you?

[webpageguru]

IMHO it has to be the forum owner. In the same way that Facebook were recently held accountable for potentially libellous and blashphemous remarks and hate pages. We are only here under the forum owners discretion. If they dont like us they can ban us. That evidences a strong form of control.

[birdie]

IMHO it has to be the forum owner. In the same way that Facebook were recently held accountable for potentially libellous and blashphemous remarks and hate pages. We are only here under the forum owners discretion. If they dont like us they can ban us. That evidences a strong form of control.

Forum owners, Facebook, etc are the publishers, which is why they are held legally liable. That is not a copyright issue.

[CheckDavid]

I guess it all depends on the Terms Of Service agreed upon.

When using any website you must agree to it's terms.

But personally, it doesn't really affect me. Whatever I write is my contribute to the community, for it to do whatever it feels like.

[inspiroHost]

Interesting question. I suppose it's the site owner.

[Knoxy]

The forum owner have full rights and responsibilities to the content. Although from my understanding, the owner is who ever owns or rents the server or space it is hosted on.

Which could be good for you, but equally, could be bad if people post things that shouldn't be there, such as warez, or offensive comments that a lot of people might be offended by.

That's why it's important to control what is and isn't allowed on forums.

[hhunt]

As with most online forums and discussion boards, the site owners have copyright to the content, but the users are responsible for what they post. What this means is that any offensive comments, material or content posted on the site has nothing to do with the site admin. So, don't post illegal content and expect the site owner to be held responsible.

Always read site terms before clicking the accept button.

[Knoxy]

I would imagine that if the site owner allows illegal content to be posted, he is equally responsible.

[timpane]

I think Facebook were lately held accountable for possibly libellous and blashphemous comments and despise pages. We are only here under the forum proprietors discretion. If they dont like us they can ostracise us. That evidences a powerful pattern of control.

[timpane]

site proprietors have copyright to the content, but the users are to blame for what they post. What this entails is that any attack remarks, material or content dispatched on the location has not anything to manage with the location admin.

[birdie]

geez you talk some nonsense. First you post:

I think Facebook were lately held accountable for possibly libellous and blashphemous comments and despise pages.

then you come back later and post:

site proprietors have copyright to the content, but the users are to blame for what they post. What this entails is that any attack remarks, material or content dispatched on the location has not anything to manage with the location admin.

Which one is right? How can Facebook get sued (your first post) and yet sites are not accountable for what users post (your second post).

[timpane]

if you gaze at when the poster lists on the forum, they acquiesce to the Terms and Services agreement so if they ever convey any individual to court over this topic, the forum OWNER will habitually win.

[WebKarim]

It varies between site to site, and ownership is typically shared, although webs masters have rights to have full ownership of posts.

It's a difficult area and probably needs a lawyer to look into it, there were some underlying issues with people refusing to use a certain web browser because the web browser terms were that any information submitted through it were the ownership and property of the web browser.. Crazy stuff.

[alexander10]

I've reported similar violations on behalf of companies/individuals before (someone had posted the full text of a published book on one of those file sharing sites) and managed to get it removed. There's also a site which purports to be a blog of Java stuff but is simply a series of postings plagarised from books - I took the time to identify the book + publisher and sent e-mails to each publisher/author to allow them to defend their own copyrights - this site, unfortunately, is based in a country that is somewhat well-known for tolerating abuse of intellectual property rights, and alas, all of the material is still online a few months late.

[Harmonic]

This is actually interesting as I always assumed it would be that anything someone submits to a public forum would become public domain.

[millionaireman]

well in this case it would be the poster who owns the content of their posts. The forum owners merely facilitated the creation and distribution of the content that the poster made, the content of the posts are ideas and expressions of the poster as an individual and it does not reflect the opinion of the whole community.

[Raees]

This type of issue are always written in the terms and condition. But we never go through them.

[painy]

I think our site content is a our own content because this is our personal thouts. although you have this content copy and past of any other forum ya etc.. while this content is not own content because all ready this content is copy scape.

[aditd]

I need some clarifications on these topics

1. Who owns the content of a forum that has been submitted in a forum post, if there were no prior ownership conditions put about it in the post? Shouldn’t that be made mandatory?

2. What is the method to ensure that the forum owner always holds the right over the content? Is there any way to make sure the content is not borrowed or copied by others?

3. Who owns the content if it has been posted somewhere else too? In that case, can anybody else other than the original owner claim rights?

Please give your opinions.

1. Generally the owner of the forum but it is more clear in each TOS of the forum.
2. No. You can ban search engines to grab content ... but user no way.

[kingage21]

Interesting question. I suppose it's the site owner.