I just recently made a automotive forum, because the one i was because the suck completely, and every member can agree with me on that. From their forums there are members who posted DIY's (do it yourself articles). I contacted each and every creator/member of the DIY articles and asked them for permission to post their article on my forum. NOW the ADMIN from that forum is telling me im violating copyright laws etc. etc., is this true? He was not the creator of any of the content, it is just posted on the forum from the member/creator. what do you guys think? help would be appreciate thanks!
I do not know if this is 100% correct, but I believe that the writer owns the copyright unless: 1) The content was generated by a regular paid employee (not a contract employee) AND the content was generated as part of that person's job duties 2) The content was created by a contract worker AND the contract under which they worked explicitly stated that copyright was owned by the forum admin 3) The forum has a policy in place and in writing that is accessible by the users that stipulates that any content is owned by the website The first two, I am almost certain about. The third sounds right, but I'm not sure that such a written policy would actually supercede the writer's copyright without a signature Here are some links about this issue: Blog/Forum Comment Ownership General Web Copyright - Beware: This is from 2001 Comment Ownership Read the Terms of Use for the forum that you got these from. If they have no language about this, then I'm pretty sure they have no leg to stand on. Many forums/blogs have a non-exclusive, royalty-free clause. This means the forum has the right to display this information, but the writer can choose to show it on other sites. If they state that the content is owned by the forum, then they might be right.