Who Owns Forum Posts

Who Owns Forum Posts

Who owns the content posted on forums

A modern misconception is that if content is published on a forum where the forum is both used and contributed by the public, submitted content is in the public domain, and as such the forum post is owned by the public. However, this is not true since nothing that is created is ever in the public domain unless defined by the author. In order to grant content to the public domain the author must explicitly define in documentation that they, the author, grant the content to the public domain.

Unless mentioned in the terms and services, often the content creator will own the Copyright to their own forum posts. However, this does not mean that they explicitly own the content, only the copyright to the content. In order to clarify the answer to this question we first need to define what we mean by "own". Since the legal area for ownership of forum content is often unclear, we will first define a few terms. The terms we need to define are: Author, Publisher and Copyright.

Author

An author is the creator of a piece of intellectual property. The word author is usually used to describe the creator of intellectual property in the form of writing. However, the word author can be used to describe the creator of any intellectual property

This term Author is generally related to writing, but the most general definition of "author" means "creator" and applies to anyone who has recorded an idea of any sort.

Publisher

Publisher: The publisher is the entity which provides access to the final packaged content. The publisher provides a distribution mechanism so that the content may reach an audience. The publisher does not need to provide a method of creating copies for distribution, since such methods are provided by 'printers'. However, a publisher will often provide s mechanism to market the content.

The publisher will often have agreed a contract with the author. The contract will often state the fees and royalty rates for both publisher and author (if anything).

Copyright

In lay man terms Copyright means the legal right to make copies. A formal definition of Copyright:

Copyright is a property right which subsists in virtually every kind of work (written, printed, electronic), as well as in the typographical arrangement of published editions, and in sound recordings, films, broadcasts or cable programmes. Copyright protection is automatic, giving control of the right of copying to the authors/creators or to their assignees/transferees.

Reference: Reading University Library

To make copies of the intellectual property that only exists as a concept, the concept must first exist in a physical form. This forum can be documentation, physical data or other. However, it is often difficult to prove who owns the concept without it first being legally published. Using a legally binding method provides a route to prove the time at which the concept was published.

When content is published without a legal method to accurately define the time stamp, debates concerning who owns the Copyright to the content are common.

Author, Publisher and Copyright in terms of Forum Posts

When considering the realms of the internet, the terms Author, Publisher and Copyright become hard to define, and incredibly difficult to prove.

Forum Post Author:

For a forum post, the author is the originator and creator of the content (the forum poster). When registering with a forum, the author will agree to the terms and conditions. The author can write content using forum software and submit the content to be publicly distributed.

Forum Post Publisher:

The forum acts as publishing software and contributes to marketing methods. The publisher is not the internet host, or the forum designers. The publisher is the owner of the forum service that allows the content to be published and distrubuted.

Forum Post Copyright:

Unless explicitly defined in the forums terms and service, the forum poster (author) will have copyright of their own content. However, copyright ownership is difficult to prove

Proof of Copyright using Forum Software

The copyright ownership for content published as forum posts fall into a grey area. If a user creates content on a forum, they should own the copyright to the content they create. However, proof of copyright ownership for forum posts is not easy for the following reasons:

1) Corruptible Publishing System:

Although, it is possible that the publishing software (the forum) can show a time stamp, the system can easily be manipulated by an administrator in such a way to alter the time stamp. The forum publishing software it's self does not provide an independent third party solution that can not be altered by those administrating the system. The time stamp provided by the forum software should not hold any weight when the case involves the forum administrator.

2) Inaccuracy of publishing of time stamp:

When publishing the forum posts, the time stamps linked to the content are not governed by an independent third party body. Often this time stamp will be related to the time located on the server hosting the database. There is no guarantee that the time stamp given to a post is accurate or even remotely correct

3) Destruction of publishing proof:

Not only can the time stamps be altered by the administrator or inaccurate but the posts can be removed permanently. By removing the post, any record of the original time stamp could be affectively destroyed. In the case where posts are removed, it becomes very difficult to provide any proof of copyright.

4) Weak proof of associating a username to a person:

Publishing using forum posting software is once again flawed if the person can not provide proof that they own the username publishing the content. Often the forum application will be designed to log the IP address for given users. However, the majority of forum users will connect to the internet using a variable IP address, so there may be no way to link to IP address and username. Since forum post systems will often allow the administrator to change the password, email address and even username for any given user, the forum does not always provide a solid mechanism to prove a username is owned by any particular person.

5) No right of access to the system providing the proof:

When the time comes to try to provide proof that you own the content published on a forum, there is no guarantee that you will be granted access to the forum. The forum owner is under to obligation to allow any user access to the system

These are all reasons why it is hard to prove copyright to content using a forum as publishing software

Please note, the content in this article does not constitute as official legal advice. Legal conditions may vary depending on the circumstances and location. To ensure you are provided the correct information for your circumstance, talk to a trained, licensed attorney who understand copyright law and intellectual property