Brian Hall: This is attorney Brian Hall with Traverse Legal, PLC., a law firm representing Internet companies throughout the world. Today, I will be answering the question: who owns content on a website? Now, this question has multiple parts to it. So, let's define each aspect.
The first deals with content, and what is content? Content could mean many things. It could mean the words that someone sees on a website. It could mean images or photographs, it could mean videos, it could mean other things that are present on a website.
The second part is, what is a website? A website is obviously what you arrive at when you type a domain name into the URL browser. So, who owns content on a website? The easiest way to answer that question is to look at the terms of use, or terms of service that are on a particular website. The terms of use are one type of website agreement, that typically details who owns the particular content on a website. It even goes into who owns intellectual property associated with that website, and that intellectual property can be a trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, or other type of non-tangible or real property.
Brian Hall: This is attorney Brian Hall with Traverse Legal, PLC., a law firm representing Internet companies throughout the world. Today, I will be answering the question: who owns content on a website? Now, this question has multiple parts to it. So, let's define each aspect.
The first deals with content, and what is content? Content could mean many things. It could mean the words that someone sees on a website. It could mean images or photographs, it could mean videos, it could mean other things that are present on a website.
The second part is, what is a website? A website is obviously what you arrive at when you type a domain name into the URL browser. So, who owns content on a website? The easiest way to answer that question is to look at the terms of use, or terms of service that are on a particular website. The terms of use are one type of website agreement, that typically details who owns the particular content on a website. It even goes into who owns intellectual property associated with that website, and that intellectual property can be a trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret, or other type of non-tangible or real property.
So, obviously people tend to think that everything on a particular website is owned by that website operator, however, oftentimes a website operator, such as Facebook, may dictate through their terms of use what they own and what the person submitting content to their website, be it a video, a photograph or text, what their ownership interests may be. So, it's important to recognize that the ownership of web content really depends upon how the website agreements set forth those particular items.
What you should keep in mind is, while the website agreement, and in particular - the terms of use, is a good first place to start, it isn't the end all be all. The reason I say that is because people may submit different content to a website as a user, and retain some rights in it, while allowing others to also have rights in it. This could be a situation where a particular photograph, text or video may be licensed from one to another. It may be licensed from the user to the website owner.
Alternatively, some website agreements may say that whatever is provided on the website is actually assigned to the website owner and the person submitting it doesn't have any rights in it any longer. So, ultimately in determining what rights you may have in information and content you submit to a website, you should first look at the website agreement. After that if you have questions, you can consult with an Internet attorney who has an understanding as to the different kinds of intellectual property and content that may be available on a website.
At the end of the day, knowing who owns the content, who has rights to use it, and the extent of those rights to use it, is absolutely critical, in any claim that involves a dispute over that particular piece of content. So, once again, this has been Brian Hall, answering your question: who owns content on a website.
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