 Purred: Fri Jun 20, '08 9:55am PST |
 | |  | | talking specifics
Quote: Thanks, Margaux, for your clear explication of the legalese (and it wasn't even difficult legalese...just that I'm a cat, and not up on this stuff).
if I want to keep my rights to my stuff, I should not post it on Catster.
Answer: It truly depends on how you mean "your rights". You retain the rights to all your words, images, and ideas formed on catster - be it on forums, bet it on your own page, or be it at any other publicly accessed part of the site. You may use your own images for profit, you may use your own words for profit. What you *cannot* do is 1) prevent Catster from using them for it's own use **within the context of catster**. (that is, catster who let's pretend is owned by Ford Motors, can't share your pics with Ford for it's new cat ad). 2) create a link to the Catster page if you are generating any funds due to the link.
There are several cases including sites like "mypage" or Facepage, as well as "tribes" on which people have posted poems which they later posted in "for profit" sites or books. and they win. it's thier material. but since, as Margaux clearly and correctly stated, you gave it up for free here, Catster can STILL print your poem, even after you've published it elsewhere. you don't get "take backs".
QUOTE: What about stuff I remove, though? What if I removed Harvey's diary today? Would it still be the property of Catster?
ANSWER: techinically, despite what some TOU state, courts have supported that it is never the "PROPERTY" of catster. catster has teh right to USE it, but they do not own it. In most cases to date, the author of a work on the internet owns the copywrite to that work, but grants the website unlimited local use. Does that distinction make sense? You can still use your photos, your words anywhere else you want, they are YOURS. But, when you post them on the internet at a host site, you give up your exclusive right to them.
As for taking them "off", nope. no take-backises.
Quote: but this is my/our first experience going public on the Internet, and the laws regarding who owns what are quite murky to us amateurs and cats.
Answer: - yep, i've been doing this for 7 years now, and the laws are as murky to judges who are deliniating them, as they are to you.
Quick summary.
1) anything you write or create on the internet is "yours", and it is actually hard to take that away from you.
2) generally, at almost any site you use as a forum, as a storage of material, or as a community, the site retains the right to "unlimited" use of your material as long as it is local. The law seems to make a strong distinction between local use and "well, i posted on catster and it ended up on playboy".
3) if an image or words of yours are used in a manner that offends you, the courts have generally been more lenient towards the creator of the work than the site. but that is NOT a hard and fast rule, so if you are concerned (here or any other site) it's wise to ask the heads if they will simply not post your picture in said manner. |  |  | |  |
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