When I post stuff online, who owns it?
By reading this series and using this website, you agree to my Terms of Service and acknowledge that this is not legal advice but for informational purposes only. If you are a Colorado business with an online presence, please contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, your online business attorney for more information about how you need to structure your business, what you need to do to make sure your website complies with all the laws and protects you, and for all your business needs at 720-530-3405 or Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com.
As noted in the second post in this series, recently there was community uproar about the change in the TOS that gave Facebook a greater license than the September 23, 2008 revision that is being used as of the time of this writing. Users wondered if Facebook owned their content or exactly how Facebook could use their content. This is a question that affects not just Facebook users, but users that post content anywhere online.
Whenever you post content on a site, the TOS may control who owns the content you post on the site. For instance, some sites say that you continue to own your content; others state that you own the content, but the site has a license to use it where the terms of the license vary; and a few even say that they own the content you post. Many sites state that the site can control the content to varying states.
So how do ownership clauses in TOSs affect the average user? It depends on what you are posting and what the terms are. If a photographer is posting pictures that he usually sells for thousands of dollars, it may matter a lot. If I am posting that I am having a great day, it may not matter at all.
For more information about terms of services, if you need a terms of service written for your company, or if you are a small business starting to use online sites to market, please contact me, Elizabeth Lewis, your business attorney at 720-530-3405 or Elizabeth.Lewis@eclewis.com for your legal needs
Wise advice. Which is precisely why I advocate blog owners have policies in place. See my post explaining why at http://ariwriter.com/2008/12/why-your-blog-should-have-a-comments-policy/
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