Copyright Forum copyright issue, help?

[Welder]

Hi, my friend recently purchased a domain name from someone who had a website associated with it. The website also had a forum associated with it in which of the seller was the only Admin of. Since the forum went along with the website/domain, the seller also handed over his forum Admin account to my friend at no cost.

The problem is, the forum was of the 'free' kind, meaning it was free to use, and hosted free of charge, even though the Admin did technically start and run the forum for years.

Now, the forum was in severe decline. The Admin didn't have time to devote to it anymore and it was overwhelmed with spam. The members were always complaining about it. So when my friend took ownership of the domain, he also transfered the forum contents to a new, licensed forum (to him) on his own webspace that he pays monthly for.

My question is, did the old forum host have the rights to the content (posts) of the forum, even though they were made by others? I guess they're kind of mad that it was transfered from them (obviously since they lose out on the ad revenue now), but do they really have the copyright to other users' posts?

Any help would be great, thanks!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You ask a very good question. I have a feeling that you might be talking about some of these hosts who are less than up front about the true relationship they have with the owner of a forum regarding their "free hosting" services.

The answer to your question is that your friend needs to look at the terms of use - the agreement made between the old forum owner and the host. In some instances, you may not realize the types of licenses they are trying to extract from you, such as the claim by the host that they have ownership rights or a license to use the content that a forum owner thought was exclusively their own. I saw that the terms of use from a popular free forum host have changed recently. Unless you're a lawyer or trained in legalese, the terms were not easy to understand - and that they were subject to the laws of an international country too.

My guess is that the old host probably did not have the rights to use the forum content other than in the capacity as a host. But just to be sure, check the legal terms such as the terms of use, which should contain all the copyright information you need to be 100% sure! Good luck!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You ask a very good question. I have a feeling that you might be talking about some of these hosts who are less than up front about the true relationship they have with the owner of a forum regarding their "free hosting" services.

The answer to your question is that your friend needs to look at the terms of use - the agreement made between the old forum owner and the host. In some instances, you may not realize the types of licenses they are trying to extract from you, such as the claim by the host that they have ownership rights or a license to use the content that a forum owner thought was exclusively their own. I saw that the terms of use from a popular free forum host have changed recently. Unless you're a lawyer or trained in legalese, the terms were not easy to understand - and that they were subject to the laws of an international country too.

My guess is that the old host probably did not have the rights to use the forum content other than in the capacity as a host. But just to be sure, check the legal terms such as the terms of use, which should contain all the copyright information you need to be 100% sure! Good luck!