Who owns a user's posts?

[sub_ubi]

I couldn't find a good forum to post a legal question in, so I'm doing it here.

By default, without adding any agreements or contracts other than the default vbulletin agreements, who is the owner of a post? The author or the forum owner?

Also if anyone has any advice on what to do when another forum is copying all of your user's posts, please share.


I found a couple threads searching on this subject:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37881
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=115070

But neither of them really came to a solid conclusion.

[Colin F]

I've moved the thread to the Chit Chat forum, as I think it's better suited there.

[Ogden2k]

The administrator has the right to do whatever they want with the post but are not liable to the content that a user may post.

[Martin]

I couldn't find a good forum to post a legal question in, so I'm doing it here.

By default, without adding any agreements or contracts other than the default vbulletin agreements, who is the owner of a post? The author or the forum owner?

Also if anyone has any advice on what to do when another forum is copying all of your user's posts, please share.
This is a touchy issue, and it kind of depends on where you and your server reside and which country's laws apply.

I know in the US there were several cases years ago where people successfuly sued because they had requested all of their posts be removed and they weren't. I dont know details of the case, such as how the TOS was worded, etc, so that's probably not a lot of help.

[Omri.L]

I think that by default the user carries the responsibility for his own posts and the site's owner has the rights to do whatever he wants with them - as long as they are legal.

[Breaker]

could it not be dependant on what the admin states in the T&C, could i not state that all posts made by a user are owned by them blah blah blah... or the opposite?

[Martin]

could it not be dependant on what the admin states in the T&C, could i not state that all posts made by a user are owned by them blah blah blah... or the opposite?
You could, but it's not necessarily legally binding.