Do you claim ownership of members' posts?

Thats not all true, if Nick's terms states that by them uploading the image, it explicitly becomes property of his site, then they've effectively signed away all their protection under copyright laws for those images.

 

Absolutely. What's good is yours to use as you wish, that's the point of "ownership," imo.

My research indicates that in the U.S. both written and case law have said that site owners are not responsible for what members post. It's like a conversation in convention or at a party. The host has no control over what members say. And websites are not responsible to edit it. But I am not a lawyer or anyone qualified to give legal advice.

Anyone who is really concerned about site content should have 30 minutes discussion with their lawyer, if their lawyer will agree to a 30-minute bill.


My site has a statement that if a photo is uploaded to the forum or the gallery, it's the forum's and we can use it (and do.) However, they can watermark it, which limits our usage. We do prevent members from downloading from the gallery, so only the forum management can use it, not the members.

If they post a link to an image hosted elsewhere then the image is theirs, not ours. (no hotlinks allowed, just url's)

We remind people of this from time to time, and any time we have a photo contest. Some members are professional photogs or they are submitting photos of their own commercial art and they are quite protective of their images. It's important they remember the terms and decide appropriately for themselves and don't get upset later.

 

That is my understanding as well, and the understanding of some of the photographers who are members of my site. They do not upload photos unless they aren't maintaining the rights to that image.

 

What concerns me ... members uploading images they do not own, and that are likely owned by others. What rights are at issue there? There are some hobbyists that are diligent about finding their images used on hobby websites by others, without permission. In other cases a funny picture or a cartoon or anything someone wanted to share, but isn't theirs, has been uploaded. I am uneasy about that, haven't taken much action yet.

We've had questions about news photos shrunk and used as avatars. So far haven't done much but request people ask permission for the use. But we haven't enforced their verifying the permission.

I'm not sure if the site can claim ownership of those images, as the poster turned over something that didn't belong to them in the first place. But I also don't know how we can know when that happens, unless it's obvious or someone calls them on it.

We do have a guideline encouraging people to use only their own photos, or ask permission, for post photos, avatars, etc. I need to write a stronger rule about it but I haven't yet figured out what it should say.

 

Well I found another part of my ToS that I was sure I had, but oculdn't find when I made my original post:

That is the important part in regards to members being responsible for their content, and not me.

Good point. But I believe I have protected myself there as well. In my terms, we have the following:

So basically, it is against our own rules and ToS for a user to submit copyrighted or trademarked material.

If it's against our rules, then we obviously do not imply or intend to seek ownership.

I used to have a "note" included with our forum rules that members should only post short excerpts of articles and a paraphrase/summary and provide a link to the original article, and to never copy/paste entire articles (which so many people were doing) because if they did, they would be liable.

I decided to just make an announcement and remove that from the rules, because it's thoroughly covered in the Terms of Service. Whose fault is it if they don't read the ToS? Not mine.


One time, we've had a user sign up (Member A) with an avatar of another member's (Member B) photo (not of the person, but of their pet bird). Member B got upset, contacted me, and Member A was considered to be in violation of both mine and Member B's copyright as the photo belonged to us.

 

I generally respond to requests for thread removals made by firms etc with "comments on this forum are the opinion of the commenter and not the forum, all views and comments are uncorroborated therefore cannot be seen as fact but just the opinion of the commenter" - this is in my TOS too.

And then if people want to be removed, I delete their account which sets their posts to 'guest'. Which DOES remove 'them' as such, but not the content of the forum/website which stays forever.

To be honest we have very few problems like this but have come across them. I think the best thing to do is get your members helping with enforcing the forum rules. And always give a polite PM/Email to the offending person explaining the rules. And I have just installed a mod which you click a button and it forces the member to read the rules before they can post anything.

Definately an issue you need to cover though, I'd hate to loose any members posts fully and just won't allow it at all.

 

I've got a question to add to this discussion:

If a member violated your rules and ends up with a perma-ban and asks to either remove the Banned title from under their username or delete all their posts else they'll seek any recourse permitted to them under law, would you comply?

My position has always been that I will never delete posts off the board except to comply with COPPA or any valid legal process. Part of my terms are worded as such:

AND...

I realize without seeking professional advice no one can say for sure, but I was wondering if anyone might have some feedback for me here. Do the terms make sense and seem to cover me in this respect?

Thank you kindly for your consideration.



EDIT - I forgot to add that on the very bottom of the terms it says, "The comments are property of their posters, all the rest © 2009 by ORBITER-FORUM.COM." I'm not sure if that conflicts with the above?

 

Sorry to bump, curious if anyone might have any suggestions for my situation posted above? Cheers.

 

My opinion is that you are covered, but I'm obviously no professional. Perhaps we should join a legal advice forum and see what they say? Gathering non-professional advice from professionals is better than gathering non-professional advice from each other here.

 

Thanks Nick, perhaps you're right.

I need to scrape some money together and do it the right way by hiring a lawyer to review them I guess. I'm not too concerned about this particular member, but I guess I would indeed sleep better if I could pay a professional to review and confirm the legality of my terms.

 

TheLaw.com Free Legal Advice Forum | Lawyers | Attorneys | Answers