My Blog’s Copyrights: Mine or WordPress’?
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The US Code Title 17 text is available from Cornell University’s law school at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/usc_sup_01_17.html.
They also have the text of the Berne Convention, which governs international copyright law for a large number of countries, available at http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html. Another major international agreement covering international copyright is the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, available at http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_01_e.htm.
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scott, I’m not sure how much of that applies here or is correct (or even what some of it means).
For the most part, in most situations, there is no “transfer of copyright” when something is published, contract or otherwise. Copyright stays with the author/creator unless it is very explicitly signed over to someone else. Giving someone (or a blog service or a newspaper) permission to publish something is not the same as giving them copyright or sharing copyright. Copyright is only shared when there are two or more authors.
The only situation most people are likely to encounter where copyright on their work is transferred to someone else is an employment contract, which will normally give copyright to the employer.
There’s a good summary of copyright ownership here:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/0-c.html
While some details are US-specific, copyright laws are fairly uniform across most countries. The general stuff about who owns copyright applies pretty much everywhere.
Of course, copyright only determines who owns the legal right to stuff. Lots of people ignore the rules, and enforcing them is difficult and can be expensive.
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Hi DavidMa22!
Yes. The moment it is created is yours. It applies generally.
But then and again, many lawyers would tell you this, unless it is distinctively so, many people can claim two (similar) pieces of work are their ‘originals’. This happened apparently in trademarks and logos.
I doubt you really need to register (eg) your design, copies of stories and such with USA copyright to sue. This is more like formality because if you can prove that you own the production and the other is not on fair use, the court shalt take this is as an offence.
But patent and such must, because there must be an ‘examination’ of whether it is really an invention based on originality.
And one thing about international laws… which I have to say but I never really mentioned, is that… The amount of grey area is so large that, say, if I ask Scope to rely on it is like someone trying to convince him USA is going to stick to UN charters. Lol.
Many countries signed the Berne convention, but… it’s like Human Rights, in real, everyone’s version of human rights is mostly his or her rights. Lol.
My suggestion is very simple. If the community wants hassle free ‘justice’, especially online, all of us must respect WordPress rules, and we respect each others and communicate like friends respecting each others’ rights and appreciating others. You see, people… If some of us think he or she is more powerful or higher class or richer and his or her voice must be louder, we’d have a problem.
And WordPress of course must exercise wise and reasonable judgement and response.
We are all bloggers. :)
Scope.
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Hi Tellyworth!
I totally agree with you. By the nature of blogging, it’s very difficult and expensive, hence irrational to rely on lawyers (who for one will never have a global online laws to stick to).
But this is a real issue I have brought up. In which WordPress’s activities is similar to a event organiser who doesn’t perform the singing, which however can record the event (hence the singer and the song) it hosted. So can the audience! Unless specifically stated you can’t.
As I have mentioned search engines, and the world doesn’t have only Googles. And i doubt WordPress have relations with every search engines companies in the world, hence we can’t have our copyrights in contract terms with all the search engines. The reason why I brought this up is obviously to explain this concept about ‘shared copyright’, and why people could have ignorantly ‘transferred’ their rights to others.
Again, if JK Rowlings write a new Harry Potter series and email me for whatever reason. The world, upon I sold that email of mine, will recognise me as the source of the story, written by JK Rowling. And if I sell the email of mine, the money goes entirely to me. It’s the same as via comments or forums or even blogs where ’email’ technology realise the capability of posting function.
When the world knows the story first from me, it becomes a ‘transfer’ of copyright unless JK Rowlings have proof she is the originator. Yes, this is not righteous, but it can be done. So this is why I bring you case this awareness. If you have any serious works, songs and such… think twice before you bring it public.
Transfering via contract is that, as any asset transfer, specifically terminates the rights of claim of the producer. Example: For some reason, Mark decides to ‘donate’ WordPress to Tellyworth. WordPress is in a way a copyright. In such contract, Mark shall never exercise his rights or claims over WordPress, just as the transfer of coys or assets to another.
In copyright, most of the time, the transfer is ‘shared’. Which means, JK Rowling ignorantly post her entire story to WordPress who shall have ‘three copies in three servers’, and when such contribution is made, WordPress (a business entity) published (eg) a book to promote itself and the book has selected postings, which happens to have JK Rowlings’ work. And I have brought out. Legally speaking, if the work is anti-Brazil or USA (we assume anti-Brazil here), JK Rowling won’t be liable, but WordPress would be for the contents if the book is sold in Brazil.
It’s also the same that if China decides that some Falun Gung people posted anti China stories, China will not only think that the copyright ONLY belongs to those Falun Gungs. Do you think China will not take action and presure USA to take action or claims from WordPress?
My view is like this because WordPress is a global happening. We cannot based WordPress on USA laws for the contents hosted. It is the same even if the poster and the host are both from USA. In this case, if we go By Right again, it’s like two New Yorkers alongside with other nationalities smoke in Open Seas when New York specifically outlaws smoking. Can we say the boat is USA registered, the two jokers are USA citizens, hence their action (smoking) is illegal?
By Right, we can’t. Which is why we have international laws in the first place for international activities, now international would includ the cyberspace. And ‘there is really no laws yet’! Lol.
I suppose this discussion should end here for this thread. But WordPress will doubtlessly encounter these sorts of global issues as it grows significant. And I hope this’d help. ;)
I got to run for a show. Enjoy!
Scope.
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There is a more serious… yet funny issue related to this coming. A Singapore company Vuestar (or what) is claiming ‘patent’ over click pictures go to sites, must pay money…
Now, how is WordPress going to pay? Wondering. Anyone knows this issue? Sounds like it’s going to go after even gigantic Microsoft~!
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