Who Owns the Content I post?
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I was just wondering: if all the content I publish is 100% original and my own, do I own the rights to that material, or does WordPress.com own that? I’m using the basic, free platform. My reason for asking is because I’m writing a book and I want to use the blogs I’ve posted in their entirety. Bottom line: is it OK to use that content how I wish, even for monetary gain?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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The Terms of service can be a bit of a mess to read – should do it at least once in your blogging career :)
You own your own content, WordPress.com does not retain rights to your content. But you do grant them a royalty free world wide license to display your material – else they would not be able to show your content on someones computer screen.
If you take your content off WordPress.COM it get deleted from their servers and they stop showing it
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You own your content. http://en.wordpress.com/tos/ However, you provide WordPress.com with the ability to promote it and that results in reblogging. http://en.support.wordpress.com/reblogs/
It also results in your full posts appearing in the WordPress.com Reader unless you insert the more tag http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/ or use a theme that provides automatic excerpts on the front page. http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/ Even if you do that those using mobiles can read the full posts. https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wordpresscom-reader-show-full-text?replies=31#post-1373606
I have some useful links re: traditional publishing you may want to consider
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2014/03/09/worrisome-or-not-wordpress-com-reader-developments/comment-page-1/#comment-93284 -
I appreciate and thank both of you for the prompt response! For some reason, I saw myself getting slapped with a subpoena and finding myself in court. While I did read the terms of service, I must have missed the past about the rights to your own content. So it really makes no difference whether it’s for monetary gain or not, and I can use my content in its entirety if I want?
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Yes you can but do note the links I provided above in my last paragraph. All bloggers are publishers. If you want to use a traditional publisher to publish your book then don’t post any part of it online. Doing that means ruining your chances with traditional publishers by giving away your first rights because blogging is publishing, which is why agents won’t represent something that’s been partially blogged: once it’s on the Internet, you’re officially published.
If you do post any of it online then be aware of how Google views content that’s duplicated across domains https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359?hl=en
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The TOS can be a bit legalese in places on some things, and the content ownership is one of those places, I had to read it several times before understanding things and moving my site here, and I used to read Federal Regulations at times for different jobs I had – so your confusion is sort of normal
good luck with your new blog
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