Hi there,
I was recently a member of a metal detecting forum and used to post regularly. Until i fell out with the owner and got my self banned for stupid reasons.
As I posted a lot on there, general and private topics, who owns these now? The forum owner has kept all my posts and topics on there under my name. But i can not access the forum to remove them and he wont as he says they belong to him now. Is this true?
Any help would be appreciated
Thank You
Forum topics ownership
Hi Carper,
You should check the terms and conditions of the forum (assuming you can access them as a non-member) but generally speaking you own copyright in what you wrote, but the forum owner has the right to retain, edit or archive your postings because you gave him this right when you signed up to the forum (this is likely to be the case even if you did not read the T&Cs first).
This is not too dissimilar to an author who writes a book. He retains copyright, but a person who buys a copy of his book has rights over what can happen to the physical book (keep it, sell it, give it away or destroy it).
You should check the terms and conditions of the forum (assuming you can access them as a non-member) but generally speaking you own copyright in what you wrote, but the forum owner has the right to retain, edit or archive your postings because you gave him this right when you signed up to the forum (this is likely to be the case even if you did not read the T&Cs first).
This is not too dissimilar to an author who writes a book. He retains copyright, but a person who buys a copy of his book has rights over what can happen to the physical book (keep it, sell it, give it away or destroy it).
Advice or comment provided here is not and does not purport to be legal advice as defined by s.12 of Legal Services Act 2007