Forum copyright question?

[Guroos]

I joined another photography forum a week ago after an invite and today read their Conditions of Use, in particular copyright and licences For someone not from the electronic era they seemed somewhat onerous and I would not agree to this with film. Is this normal for the electronic era? [no, I will not name the company involved]

Thanks


Neil


Here is the worrying section from copyright and licences:

Your submissions of files including, but not limited to: Resumes, e-mail, Flash movies, images, logos, audio loops, and other software hereby constitutes your agreement to grant xxxxxx a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, sub-licensable, perpetual license to reproduce, distribute, transmit, adapt, sub-license, and publicly display any such submissions. You also grant xxxxxx the right to utilize your name in connection with all advertising, marketing and promotional materials related thereto.

[gstark]

That's pretty heavy copyright assignment, especially for a forum.

I don't know that I would like to post images under those conditions.

[Justin]

Ridiculous - although I didn't read the fine print here - Gary???

I've dealt with these sorts of T&C before for an IT contractual basis for software development. However the words 'sublicense' and 'reproduce' are the key concerns here. The last sentence can be removed entirely as it is not limited to the forum where the images were posted e.g. I would be OK if there was a T&C saying images I post here could be used in promotional messages for the forum, which they are for example POTW ...not my images unfortunately .

The rest of it is OK. All of the others can be read in context of the WWW and it's global nature and also the fact that files may be cached anywhere.

[gstark]

Justin,

We make no claims whatsoever in terms of usurping the rights of the originator of any work that appears here.

Rather, we take IP very seriously here, and respect both the IP of any contributor here, as well as any other person. We have on occasion needed to remove direct postings of images, reducing them to a link, so that they may be seen in their original context, at the authors' sites.

That said, we hold copyright to content in this site only insofar as anything posted here is a part of this site's content, and we would not view kindly any attempts by others to use that content without the permission of the original creator.

Certainly, we have no general interest in using anything posted here beyond the context of its posting. If we, on occasion, find a desire to use any image from here, such as for our upcoming Chimp Magazine, we would have no hesitation in seeking the author's explicit approval for our use of that content within that specifically identified need.

[Guroos]

Justin and gstark,

Thank you very much for your replies. It confirms my opinion that I will not post anything worthwhile on that forum, I really found it quite outrageous that they could utilise my name in any marketing or promotion with no reference to myself. I actually find it very presumptious that someone would even write such a catch all clause, it shows they have no respect for their members.

Thank you for confirming my opinions were correct in this digital world. In fact, based on your opinions, I think I will leave that forum as their ethical side is somewhat short of my standards and as yet have not found anything useful there.

Once again thanks for your wise counsel on these matters.


Regards


Neil

[Justin]

That's what I like about this forum there is a care factor applied

[Aussie Dave]

That's what I like about this forum there is a care factor applied

I completely agree. I remember a while back when I was lucky enough to be chosen for PotW and I was first consulted via PM to ask if I was happy to have my image displayed as such, which of course I was.

This just goes to show that we have an amazingly supportive community here and that the creators & moderators of this fine forum can pat themselves on the back and know that they are doing a damn fine job !

This forum really has a "community" feel to it (IMHO) and although there are rules & guidelines, they rarely need to be enforced, which is testament again to the wonderful work done here...

[gstark]

Dave,

This just goes to show that we have an amazingly supportive community here and that the creators & moderators of this fine forum can pat themselves on the back and know that they are doing a damn fine job !

I for one think we have an excellent team of moderators, and key members, here. I really couldn't ask for better mods, but they've all become very good personal friends of mine in the time that we've been here, and I couldn't think of a better outcome than that.

This forum really has a "community" feel to it (IMHO) and although there are rules & guidelines, they rarely need to be enforced, which is testament again to the wonderful work done here...

While this is certainly something that we've nurtured and encouraged, I put it down to the quality of the membership here. The people here are really the best, and while we're a photography forum, we are also about people, and if the people are good, then the forum will be good.