Does anyone post orginal content on here knowing your content becomes owned by Fluther?

ooooh…interesting…no i didn’t know that… better be careful in future… ebcause I’m such a genius of course they’ll want to use my work… not

Isn’t that rather common on websites like this – social websites? I know it’s listed in Askville’s guidelines, too. When you read it and understand it, then you have to make the decision whether to post or not to post. It’s out there, it’s not hidden. I’m trying to figure out the theft and lies, topics. How is it a lie, if it is spelled out for us?

Yes I am aware of this.

that’s part of the reason i stopped posting erotic nudes eating cake.

cake recipes are hard to come by.

Yep.

It is okay with me that Fluther owns my “Ode to Daloon”

Seriously though- one does not usually post on Fluther their life work or pertinent intellectual properties.

I don’t plan on posting anything of mine that I don’t want anyone to have access to. Thanks for the heads up. :)

Actually, you still own your content, you’re just giving Fluther some usage rights. In addition, posting a link wouldn’t give up rights to the content at the link destination, even if you own it. This only covers text posted directly on Fluther, that you own. So don’t post your upcoming novel here in it’s entirety unless you’re willing to dilute your ownership (not that Fluther would ever use it for anything non-Fluther related anyway). Most websites have this policy, so that if they ever change the format or start offering answers via SMS for example, they don’t have to request everyones permission. Hope this helps.

@richardhenry oh coool…i’ll get my thinking cap on then!

@richardhenry so I can put my plans for my Evil Eye ray gun on Fluther! I’m targeting mothers like me that are so tired of doing the look, on their own! You’ve made my day!

Most sites have clauses like that.

The key word here is “original”. Note, it is in the question. Regarding some of the answers. Not all sites like this take ownership, copyright, etc. They get, and they are explicit about this, usage rights for it on the site. The Terms as they presently are do not agree with @richardhenry ‘s interpretation. So until further clarification or rewriting, anything on here that hasn’t been previously copyrighted to or you’re linking to is Fluther’s, not yours. In act, you could interpret the Terms to mean that you’re even giving up ownership to Fluther whether you have it copyrighted, trademarked, etc.

Actually, the current terms are and have in the past always been interpreted both in the US and UK to mean the granting of usage rights, and not of ownership. I’m on my phone right now so can’t post links, but look up copyright law on Wikipedia and it gives you a reasonable overview.

The terms could be more explicit, but by their nature are poorly enforceable anyway.

I find this part here, “You acknowledge that Fluther may change, delete, or alter any information posted on the site without warning and without attribution.” a little frightening.
Does this mean anything I write on here, question, comment or otherwise, can be changed without letting me know?

Also no; this could not cover hyperlinked content. There have been numerous cases dealing with the responsibility for external content.

@Kelly27 Fluther has on occasion modified content to remove email addresses and offensive links, etc.

The terms are deliberately broad, but like I said are poorly enforceable.

PS: I do not represent Fluther here. That’s Ben and Andrew’s job.

@cak I want one of those when you get them done

@richardhenry You are right, they are intentionally very broad which is good for them….

This is an established practice. For instance, in the TOS for Facebook, the following is stated (I’ve highlighted relevant portions):

User Content Posted on the Site

You are solely responsible for the photos, profiles (including your name, image, and likeness), messages, notes, text, information, music, video, advertisements, listings, and other content that you upload, publish or display (hereinafter, “post”) on or through the Service or the Site, or transmit to or share with other users (collectively the “User Content”). You may not post, transmit, or share User Content on the Site or Service that you did not create or that you do not have permission to post. You understand and agree that the Company may, but is not obligated to, review the Site and may delete or remove (without notice) any Site Content or User Content in its sole discretion, for any reason or no reason, including User Content that in the sole judgment of the Company violates this Agreement or the Facebook Code of Conduct, or which might be offensive, illegal, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of users or others. You are solely responsible at your sole cost and expense for creating backup copies and replacing any User Content you post or store on the Site or provide to the Company.

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

@Dog you can be a product tester

@cak Awesome!

I do not have a problem with the TOS at fluther.

I have been places where the TOS wanted copyright to everything posted.

On one artist site the TOS stated that the site owned copyright to all the artists work both past and present. That one blew me away.

@shilolo I don’t post original content on Facebook. Are you saying that Fluther is another Facebook?

@Halliburton_Shill No. It isn’t. What original content are you talking about? The next great American novel? I’m just pointing out that these types of terms are commonplace amongst community sites.

@shilolo Yes, but if I’m not mistaken, that is a fallacy. How does it make it acceptable that other websites are doing it? It’s scary, frankly, that Facebook has that in their TOS, and people have been pretty vocal in their discontent about that.

@richardhenry My concern with that is if information that I put out there is changed or modified in anyway I should have knowledge of this.

@Jiminez I’m not a lawyer, so it is very difficult for me to parse the details. I imagine that it would be very difficult to win a copyright case (if you’re Fluther) over something written here. The value of the terms is that it allows the site to remove hateful, bigoted, spiteful comments and-or change posts on occasion to remove personal details. For example, sometimes people put up addresses, phone numbers, real names in situations that are uncalled for, and we (well, actually only Andrew and Ben) can change the text to take that stuff out.

@Kelly27 I expect that you would be notified, in general, as a manner of politeness and fairness. In the rare instances where a quip has been modified by someone other than the user, a message is usually sent to the user or placed within the thread.

@shilolo That’s good to know.

It’s Ok with me because everything I post here is plagiarized.
————- “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler

Anytime you want to post original content anywhere on the internet you run the risk of someone using your words.

If you sign up as a member of Fluther and write out your opinions here, you should expect that they have a right to use them. Otherwise, the site would be blank.

Is that such a surprise?

I didn’t actually know that but I don’t really care. I doubt I’ve ever said anything really all that wonderful.

@loser Really? You’re awesome. Quit putting yourself down. :]

Yes, I am aware that Fluther owns my content once I release it to the masses here. Since much of my material that I contribute is relatively harmless although important is some way or another, I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about it being an issue at a later time.

@jonsblonde Yes ma’am! :)

grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site

This sounds kind of scary.

Most contracts and legalese do sound scary.

Here’s one application:

-You type a question with keywords
-They send those keywords to Amazon
-Amazon sends relevant ads to the site

This would not be possible without non-exclusive rights to use your content in relation with the Site.

@Dog—so where, exactly is this “Ode to daloon?” I know him pretty well, and I’m pretty sure he’d be interested in seeing it.

@fireside
Maybe in the future no one will own anything and we’ll share everything and we’ll get back to really living…you can say I’m a dreamer.

As you can see on this question, it’s preventing me from providing original answers.

That was you preventing yourself.
If you don’t like the policy, don’t respond

Why bother with Fluther at all, if you won’t post an answer?