Blogging and Copyright

[WillMadison]

If I create a blog, do I retain the copyright to the content of the blog?

Can the service that I use to blog take the content of my blog and publish without my permission or involvement?

[jk]

if you are posted on anothers site, you would be bound by the terms of use agreement. As an example, when posting here, ExpertLaw has written into their TOS that they retain copyright to all posts. As such, they can control what is done with the posts.


If your blog is not on anothers site, then you would own the copyright and have the rights to control your writings.

[aaron]

(We don't claim copyright - as is detailed here, we ask only a license to continue to share any materials you post.)

[jk]

whoops. sorry.

but, even with that, if the website involved does have such license to reprint, then they are still not doing anything wrong, as long as they are within the permission granted.


the other thing the OP needs to understand is that regardless what they want to restrict, if they posted it on the internet, it is viewable as the result of a search in most cases.

Nothing is private as soon as it is published on a publicly accessible forum.

[KeyWestDan]

I think perhaps the question might be someone creating a blog on a service owned by someone else. The blog is created and owned by the blogger, but it might be a free blog on Google, for instance. The blogger owns the content, but the Google's terms of service likely give it certain rights that the blogger might not like. In that case, the blogger would need his own domain and software.

[WillMadison]

whoops. sorry.

but, even with that, if the website involved does have such license to reprint, then they are still not doing anything wrong, as long as they are within the permission granted.


the other thing the OP needs to understand is that regardless what they want to restrict, if they posted it on the internet, it is viewable as the result of a search in most cases.

Nothing is private as soon as it is published on a publicly accessible forum.

My concern was whether or not ownership of the content could be inadvertently transferred based on the T&C of the site. I get the bit about the site needing a license to reproduce the work otherwise it couldn't simply display it. In short, I'm wanting to avoid a situation where a site's T&C is such that they could take the content of my blog and publish the material thus bypassing me because of language in their T&C.

[jk]

it is possible that you have relinquished your rights due to your use or acknowledgment of the TOS of that site. If it states you relinquish your rights by accepting their TOS and you accepted their TOS so you could post there, then you have transferred your rights to that forum and they can do what they wish with their property.

so, to your original question:

Can the service that I use to blog take the content of my blog and publish without my permission or involvement?

I presume, by your question, that they already have so the next question is:

is it legal?

to that; no