Copyright over forum posts

[Brock]

Hello,

This query relates to posts to another internet forum.

I'm planning to create a non-commercial website out of a selection of posts to another forum I take part in, with the permission of the authors of those posts. These are posts to a public forum, not made in any business or commercial capacity, and my understanding is that copyright resides with the original authors. I've done this sort of thing before and normally it's just been a formality. The main problem has been getting in touch with people who are no longer active on the forum to get their permission, but I'm quite prepared to exclude or rewrite those sections if necessary.

However, in this instance it was pointed out to me that the forum owners might claim copyright over the posts. This is because there is a paragraph in the terms and conditions of the site saying:

"You agree that everything you post on [forum] can be used by [company] in whatever business it deems appropriate, without expecting anything more than an appreciative nod and perhaps a credit. We don't want to infringe anyone's copyright, so don't just cut-and-paste material from elsewhere without making it clear that that's what you're doing."

Whether this formally transfers copyright to the company I'm not sure. There is also a copyright notice at the bottom of each page saying "All content Copyright © [company] 2003-2012". However the vast bulk of the material I want to use dates from 2013 or later, so I'm not sure whether it would be covered by this notice anyway.

I contacted them at the end of April asking them for clarification. It seems they have no current plans to use any of the material I wish to use. They don't normally use material from the forum in their business anyway, and in fact generally pay very little attention to it. Nevertheless I'm reluctant to proceed without their explicit permission, in case I come up against come legal obstacle I hadn't envisaged.

Despite a couple of reminders by both email and phone, they haven't responded yet. Should I wait until I hear from them, or is it safe to assume that the proposed website wouldn't violate their copyright?

[AndyJ]

Hi Brock and welcome to the forum.

You don't mention which country you are in so I will assume it's the UK, and therefore the applicable law on this will be UK law.

The statement you quote from the website owners is not an assignment of copyright, which under UK law needs to be in the form of a signed deed executed by the copyright owner (see section 90(3) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988). The only exception to this rule is where an employee creates a work in the course of his/her employment, and in such cases the employer becomes the first owner of the copyright in that work unless some contractual provision reverses this situation (see section s11(2)). Obviously that does not apply to contributions to a forum. Therefore the authors of the original posts retain the copyright in what they have written.

[Brock]

Hi Brock and welcome to the forum.

You don't mention which country you are in so I will assume it's the UK, and therefore the applicable law on this will be UK law.

Thanks! Yes I am in the UK, and so is the forum owner. Some of the other contributors are outside the UK but I assume this makes no difference.

The statement you quote from the website owners is not an assignment of copyright, which under UK law needs to be in the form of a signed deed executed by the copyright owner (see section 90(3) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988). The only exception to this rule is where an employee creates a work in the course of his/her employment, and in such cases the employer becomes the first owner of the copyright in that work unless some contractual provision reverses this situation (see section s11(2)). Obviously that does not apply to contributions to a forum. Therefore the authors of the original posts retain the copyright in what they have written.

Thanks very much - that was my understanding as well. Is it OK if I quote you on that?

[AndyJ]

Is it OK if I quote you on that?

By all means, you may quote me, but it's the law you need to quote as it represents the reality of the situation, rather than just my opinion.

[Brock]

I've heard back from them now and they've confirmed that they have no objection to the use of the material. Thanks for your help.