Who Owns your Comments?

Almost all the Machinimas I’ve seen have the same first comment that reads “First!”.

SECOND!!!!!!!!
go ahead and call me a pancake

My co-worker, Jeff Chandler, brought this issue up on Performancing three days ago. I am of the opinion that a commenter cannot expect to own their comments unless they can not be modified by the author.

Would you want to own something that has been modified, but still has your name on it? I don’t think so. I’d rather the blog or site I post on assumes liability.

As long as a site says they can modify your content, you can’t actually assume you own that content.

Personally, I believe comments should be licensed under a creative commons license, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Regardless, most people voting on Performancing decided that the blogger owned the comments, and I agree with that.

[...] tonight, I was working on a blog post for Chris, called Who Owns your Comments?. I couldn’t stop thinking about the issue, and am decidedly torn on it. I can see this from [...]

very intersting that gave me somthing to think about

More to the point–why bother commenting? See here:

http://www.librarystuff.net/2007/07/09/commenting-rip/

a grand total of six comments–three from the same person. And the blogger himself didn’t comment on the comments. So much for discussion.

I would think Terms Of Service would dictate whether you retain your copyright to your intellectual production, or surrender it to the site when you post. Copyright law states you own your production upon creation. If you work under a contract which supersedes that, then your owner owns your production. So for this kind of place, I would think I own this drivel, for what it is worth :>]

lol.. pancake.. !
I watch the video, then leave a comments

Umm.. I really don’t see this topic much of a problem, I mean, what do I care who owns the comments, it’s nothing financial or something..

Anyway, I just joined friendfeed, and geez, it’s really aswome, thanks for talking about it.

I’m an amature internet writer it seems. Nothing as centralised as blogging, but leaving comments and odd articles wherever they look like they are relevent.

Plenty on Lockergnome of course and even Yahoo Answers. It was one of those answers on the meaning of a legal term that I found on someone else’s webpage. Clearly attributed to me, but taken without my permission.

Did I mind? No, not really - It was clearly attributed to me; although I have reservations about it being on a page that seemed to be designed to generate revenue for someone else.

In the end, I took it as a sort of flattery, althought it was probably more computer generated, rarther than someone looking through the answers and deciding it was worthy of being on their site…

I can ask the same question to you Chris: Who owns your videos when you put them onto YouTube?

Comment wise: Personally, mine belong to the host of the website I post my comments on, you know, so I can’t get in trouble for what I say ;)

I couldn’t agree more. By opening a site or attending a shared network or a social network, we are inviting people to come and leave a piece of themselves behind in form of a comment. You have most likely seen me posting on Lockergnome and might remember that I run my own blog and I never for a minute consider myself the owner of ANY of the content. In fact the reason that I write articles is to share them with the community. My hope is to build enough readership to almost create a dialogue around what happens to be taking place at any given point in my life. To talk with friends about what is relevant to me at any given time. I am sure you have seen this with your blog.

Who’s comment is this? The community’s!

Second!

Hey, what’s a pancake?

(Mention IHOP and I’ll slap you.)

I think its pretty clear that the POSTER owns the comments. You can relate it to a message board outside your school. The school doesnt ‘own’ the content on those boards, they simple reserve the right to censor/supervise what gets posted, and remove those that they deem inappropriate.

I always dislike the ‘first’ comment. It makes it even worst when people are not even the first. I always found it disrespectful since most do not even spend the time and effort to make a meaningful post.

I believe comments do belong to us. But they are subjected to rules following what ever forums or blog you look at. So if a rule is violated, than removal is allowed. I am not sure about editing someones comment, that area to me is a tad iffy. Especially since it comes down to do they have the right to edit your comment? Would you rather have your comment deleted or changed to follow the rules and leave the core of the comment in place.

Well I’ve Always thought that Youtube Owned everyones comments because when you comment, you take some of their storage space.

This is a sort-of important issue, I personally don’t care who owns my comment as long as it is recognized by the community I posted it at. (By the way I’m second!)

I think that the comment is owned by the person that wrote the comment.

When you think about it - An artist sings the song, and its theirs (commenter). Although the label produces it (the blog host…).

That’s what I’ve always thought anyway!

Nice video Chris!

I thought we all knew these facts… When I was watching this I felt like you were talking the obvious

The terms and conditions usually grant the website full rights to any contributions you make to a community site. Your participation is deemed acceptance of these terms.

I think the site should own them too.

IMO this is public speech and I cannot own it. IANAL but I think you’re using imprecise language to talk about this. We’re uttering public speech and I don’t think we “own” it in the sense some of us are thinking of. We may be quoted or blamed for it but by posting it here I have given you the right to publish it, which IIRC is not same as copyright. In any case, defining “own” and “copyright” and why this is important to you might help peel this onion.

I’ve always been of the mind that any comment I decide to place on someone else’s site remains my personal opinion, but I have given the owner of the blog permission to use the comment in any way he/she chooses, as long as they do not twist my words into another meaning. I don’t mind the owner using my comments, just don’t edit them to make it look like I agree or disagree. take it at face value.

Hey chris, I think this a good topic. I think that the person that writes the comment is the one who owns it. I mean they wrote it not the blogger so the comment writer owns it. If you wanted to use it you would have to contact the original writer not the blogger. Also all the blogger has in this is that he/she is giving you the privilege to post in reply.

I think that the website owns the comment, but the user retains all privileges. For example, if the website wants to use that quote, they must give credit to the speaker and possibly ask for permission to use them.

[...] Next Post View Blog Posts Recently, I was working on a blog post for Chris, called Who Owns your Comments?. I couldn’t stop thinking about the issue, and am decidedly torn on it. I can see this from two [...]

Seems everyone here only focused on half-hearted comments that are posted as a fleeting though, but haven’t considered the comments that may be seriously profound thoughts, poems, songs, or original images. Some comments may even be very detailed and informative. All of these can actually have substantial value. Then, some may quote their own or someone else’s copyrighted material and post that in a comment section. That’s a deeper issue as well.