Hi mickeymouse123,
Normally, anything published on the internet is automatically
copyrighted and belongs to the owner. This means that you may not copy
and republish material that you find on the internet without the
owner's permission unless otherwise stated. However, with social
websites like MySpace, there is another layer of protection. In a
nutshell -
1. You own what you post and likewise everyone else owns what they post.
2. By posting on social websites, you agree to their Terms of Service
and by doing so grant them a temporary license to use your work.
3. Therefore, postings are not only protected by the copyright of the
original owners but also by the license granted to the websites.
4. To post on social websites, you must own what you post there, in
other words, you may not copy someone else's work on Xanga and post it
on MySpace without written permission.
Read the Terms of Service, where copyright issues are spelled out, on
whatever website you are interested in. Here are links to MySpace and
Xanga which are typical (please click on the links for full details).
Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com.
1. "...After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you
continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you
continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose.
By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the
MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to
use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and
distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services."
"You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you
on or through the MySpace Services or otherwise have the right to
grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of
your Content on or through the MySpace Services does not violate the
privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any
other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees,
and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted
by you to or through the MySpace Services."
"Copyright Policy. You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce
in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary
information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written
consent of the owner of such proprietary rights."
http://collect.myspace.com/misc/terms.html
Content Submitted to Xanga.com
"You retain all ownership rights to your Content. Except for its
ownership of the collection of all content on Xanga, as described
below, Xanga does not claim ownership of any Content you publish in
your area of the Website (?Your Xanga Site?).
When you publish your Content on the Service, you grant Xanga a
temporary license to ?rebroadcast? it. We need this license to be able
to show your Content to other members and visitors. For more
information about this temporary license, check out our Copyright
FAQ."
"By publishing Content on Your Xanga Site you grant Xanga a
world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce,
modify, distribute, transmit, publicly perform and publicly display
the Content..."
*Individual Contributors retain all ownership rights to their Content.
Xanga does not claim ownership of any Content you publish on Your
Xanga Site."
Copyright Infringement
"You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any
copyrighted material, belonging to others without obtaining their
prior written consent. Xanga reserves the right to terminate your use
of the Service and remove any infringing Content if you infringe the
copyright rights of others..."
http://help.xanga.com/about/termsofuse.htm
Additional Links of Interest
10 Big Myths about copyright explained
In Summary
* These days, almost all things are copyrighted the moment they are
written, and no copyright notice is required.
* Copyright is still violated whether you charged money or not, only
damages are affected by that.
* Postings to the net are not granted to the public domain, and don't
grant you any permission to do further copying except perhaps the sort
of copying the poster might have expected in the ordinary flow of the
net.
* Fair use is a complex doctrine meant to allow certain valuable
social purposes. Ask yourself why you are republishing what you are
posting and why you couldn't have just rewritten it in your own words.
* Copyright is not lost because you don't defend it; that's a concept
from trademark law. The ownership of names is also from trademark law,
so don't say somebody has a name copyrighted.
* Fan fiction and other work derived from copyrighted works is a
copyright violation.
* Copyright law is mostly civil law where the special rights of
criminal defendants you hear so much about don't apply. Watch out,
however, as new laws are moving copyright violation into the criminal
realm.
* Don't rationalize that you are helping the copyright holder; often
it's not that hard to ask permission.
* Posting E-mail is technically a violation, but revealing facts from
E-mail you got isn't, and for almost all typical E-mail, nobody could
wring any damages from you for posting it. The law doesn't do much to
protect works with no commercial value.
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
"Just because information is on the Internet does not mean it?s ?free?
to take and steal. Information, images, graphics, designs, and
photographs, all are protected under copyright laws and are known as
intellectual property. While it is nice to think that everything on
the Internet is or should be free, for the most part it is. It is free
to read, look at, wonder about, and even write about. It is not free
to steal, make money from it, or use it as your own."
"If the issue of people stealing your content doesn?t bother you, be
sure and mark your website or blog accordingly with a copyright tag
that says 'help yourself'. Display a copyright notice, like one from
Creative Commons, that says 'free for the taking'.
"If it does bother you, you can display a copyright policy notice to
inform your readers that your content is yours - don?t touch. Or you
can choose another copyright policy that says something between. Check
out all the different copyright options at Creative Commons.. They
also feature small logos, like the one in the sidebar here, which
designates which rights users have to use your content."
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/
Creative Commons - Choosing a License
http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/
To use the net
"There's a pretty simple rule when it comes to the net. If you didn't
write it, and you want to reproduce it, ask the creator, or assertain
that it meets the complex public domain rules if it's pretty old."
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html
I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please post a
clarification request and wait for me to respond before closing/rating
my answer.
Thank you,
hummer
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