My Blog’s Copyrights: Mine or WordPress’?
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Do the copyrights to my posts on my WordPress blog belong to me, to WordPress, or to Automattic? For example, would I be able to legally compile all my posts into a book to sell?
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Yes, you can compile your blog into a book and sell it. The copyright attaches to the words, not the medium.
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If J.K.Rowling had written all of Harry Potter on a blog here we could not claim a penny even if we wanted – which we would not of course.
It’s all yours as has been said.
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oooh that is very good to know, glad I picked the right site…but seriously is there a photogallery of this “cute staff”? (what?…who said that?…)
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romi, I was kinda sortta pulling that outta my backside…..as I’ve never seen pics of any of them! LOL Just playing the role of a jokester this long weekend, keeping things light. They may be, for all I know :P
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Hey, I’ve met some of the staff, and they are in fact cute. But they’re also pretty much all spoken for.
You can try the galleries at http://ma.tt though.
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Hi there!
Actually, WordPress does share a ‘limited’ copyright.
If you are the author, and you publish a book via a publisher, the publisher which involves in the work being produced has a limited rights, although it cannot claim the works to be its own nor necessarily get the rewards.
In publishing your articles with newspaper, it’s like offering the newspaper a certain limited copyright to own the article, and be reproduced in future.
That is, in traditional media, when you send Queen Diana’s photo (maybe to expose something) which you have shot to be published, you can’t later claim rewards via copyright from the magazine if the magazine sells a billion dollars because of this and you want a share of it.
But this is seldom noticed. But Mark is right, he can’t get anything if JK Rowlings posted Harry Potters in WordPress. But, WordPress can reproduce them (eg) in their promoting page or on newspapers alongside with WordPress news (Eg. “Want to read Harry Potter? WordPress got it!”. Yeah, it’s not Mark who wrote it, but it’s WordPress’ privilege.).
Again, check with your lawyers. ;)
Scope.
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scopettg, there is no “shared” copyright. What you’re describing is a license, which is a separate thing.
When you sign up for a WordPress.com blog and accept the terms of service, you give us permission (a license) to put your stuff on the web. You own the copyright, we don’t. Same goes for a newspaper – unless your contract with the paper says otherwise, you still own the copyright on your work, they just have permission to use it.
Any serious blogger should read the following articles. They describe your obligations when copying someone else’s work; the same rules apply to anyone else who copies your work. The information there should trump any advice posted on forums.
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Hi Tellyworth!
I am just using a layman’s way of getting people to understand why their articles may find themselves elsewhere by the host. Copyright, whether transfered by contract or what, is a shared concern.
Which is actually a very contentious point between the public, even in Asia where the copyrights situation is pretty lax.
As we all know, the recent why our articles got hosted with WordPress is because we ‘contributed’ by posting to WordPress. There was this situation that a letter from Mr X is being sent to a publisher to be published, the letter belonged to X, but the article of which the contents of the letter could be used for even sales purposes is of the publisher.
Let’s push the ‘assertions or wishes’ for discussion sake: If WordPress decides to publish a book that contains selected articles of its bloggers, do you think it cannot?
Now many people would claim that WordPress steals copyright. But if Jk Rowling posted a comment, and that comment is of the content of her entire Harry Potter, one can deem that she has ‘contributed’ her book via comments. In emailing, people email articles or letters to me. Those are my emails. I can do anything with them, unless stated otherwise.
Which is why… it’s very contentious. What if Jk Rowlings decides to email me her Harry Potter story? I can sell this email of Mine, though I cannot claim I wrote the stories. I am selling only an email of mine, given to me from someone else. But naturally, ‘it coincides’ with the content of Harry Potter. Lol.
This is the funny issue about copyright, because copyright exists to protect the interest of the producer. But, when the producer offered to others the product ignorantly… it can be ‘transfered’ or ‘shared’ in a sense. And that’s the precise problem when people make noise.
When you post in a forum, the admin can even delete (or manage) your ‘copyright’ messages, or even stories, or to publish a book for the forum of such messages. Some call this ‘shared copyright’. Which is… if you cherish your production, do not disclose them.
Say, X forum published its book with 30-feb-3000 messages catalogue or what, and Jk Rowlings actually posted her story in, and it’s about anti-China story. Now…In USA, people buys the book, in China, X forum might be liable in China. What about Jk Rowling?
X forum is liable because he is liable on the JK Rowlings contents. X forum will be perceived as the ‘shared’ copyright party to be liable for that contents. LL.
The problem is that when people see how contents can make money when others sold them, they want to claim back the property (actually the $$$).
Tellyworth, I am just discussing the issues, not debating. The use of contents and who can do so, is very much hence… interesting. Now, Googles have many many pics, by search engines, we can’t say that those are my copyrights when you are opening all the options to encourage botx (not you signing any contract with Googles to do so, because other China search engines or India ones can also come) to seek them out, and you know Googles is making money on such contents by displaying them for searchers.
Of cos, I am not saying Sblogs are legally doing so. I am just hoping to raise awareness. many state-owned newspapers don’t even need a contract for your copyrights usage, because there is a part in copyright that the right of use by the state in certain situation is always given. And state-owned newspapers are sometimes part of the government in such ‘situation’.
Of course, I may not be right. :)
Scope.
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Just a quick addendum. According to Copyright.gov (which only covers the US), your work is copyright protected the moment you create it and it is exposed to others. Although if you ever publish it and someone copies you, and you wish to sue them, you will have to register with the US Copyright office.
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How much does being a ping-pong specialist pay? I may consider a change of career.
@davidma22: that law applies to all WordPress.com blogs. Most countries in the world are signatories to the treaty which makes that stipulation as well. So it’s the same in Canada, the UK, even China (although not many people know that).
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Raincoaster, you’re from Canada; and should be an Air Hockey Afficianado (if hired by wordpress).
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I’m pretty hot at Air Hockey, actually. But if they hired me they’d have to take responsibility for some of the crap I lay down on people in the forums, and I don’t think they want to do that.
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