

Who Has Comment Copyright Ownership In A Disqus Era? - drm237
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/05/who-has-comment-copyright-ownership-in.html

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pg
The commenter. Under current law you have copyright on something you write as
soon as you write it.

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notauser
This is true under US copyright law, and in those nations with harmonized
laws. The site could be hosted somewhere else, which might still give rise to
infringement in the US but as no one in Outer Nowhere will care it doesn't
really matter.

In addition a US (etc) website might require copyright assignment as part of
the terms of service. This is possibly enforceable as a contract because there
is clearly consideration on both sides (comment content, publishing service).
The law says that consideration must be sufficient but not necessarily equal.

Of course the biggest reason that the terms of service would work is that if
someone really wanted to challenge them they would have to take the site owner
to court, and who does that over blog comments? Possession is nine tenths of
the law :)

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webwright
Copyright ownership is one thing... I think that means that reproducing the
comment elsewhere (in the "Best Disqus Comments EVAR Book of 2009" for
example) would require permissin from the commenter.

But while you have rights to the creative work of the comment, I think the UGC
site in question (whether it's Digg or Reddit) has the right to remove it or
futz with it at will.

If I put a whiteboard outside and you draw a picture on it, it seems pretty
ridiculous to think that you have the right to get upset if I erase it or even
change it (or allow other people to erase it or change it). Of course, if I
copied it, framed it, and sold it in a gallery...

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bayleo
Most services with primarily user-generated content have already covered their
bases; check out the reddit ToS ("Rules of Usage," item #3) or digg's ToS
(item #6) which dumps all their content under the CC umbrella.

<http://reddit.com/help/useragreement> <http://digg.com/tos>

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hank777
Yes, but I dont think the blogging systems have this since every blogger would
have to have his/her own TOS and could not be covered by a blanket wordpress
or typepad TOS.

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brlewis
The example he cited isn't a copyright question. Deletion is not an exclusive
right.

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1gor
From TFA:

    
    
      I would like to call for all comment systems to provide a mechanism to clearly indicate to users 
      what rights they have and what rights they are giving out when they write a comment.
    

Next to 'Submit' button (small print): "by pressing this you agree with TOS".

TOS: "You grant copyright on your comments to site owner" (or "you own your
comments").

