Hiya folks, I just have a few questions about copyright on a forum. What content is protected by copyright laws? Let's say I like the way the rules are done on a particular forum, so I decide to copy them and place them on my forum. Am I allowed to legally do this? Don't get me wrong, I don't want to steal anything from anyone, but where is the line drawn regarding copyright? Are copyright laws still engaged if the forum does not have a copyright message on the bottom? Another words, do I need to have the copyright message on my forum in order for them to be in effect?
Any original work created by a person has an implied copyright on it by that person. As far as rules go, just write your own using theirs as a basis.
What I said is, essentially, the very basics. Any and all original works are owned by the author either through expressed or implied copyright. Some sites say that posts are the works of their authors and do not represent the opinions of the website or staff of the website. I have also seen places that state that all ownership of post content is forfeited to the website upon submission. Why you would do this, I don't know, but I've seen it happen. It's all depends on your Terms of Service and Privacy Policies.
you might consider stating it in such a way that the forum has non-exclusive copyrights. a right to use a copy, without preventing the originator from using the material elsewhere. I noticed one busy site whose terms said that posts are public domain.
