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Originally Posted by Lalwendė
I often wonder about the copyright position of contributions to the 'Downs, particularly RPG games - many of us might want to take things we have written and use them elsewhere. Who technically owns these?
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Issues surrounding copyright and the internet give rise to real headaches, given that the net is accessible worldwide.
Under UK law (and most legal systems, I should imagine), you own the copyright in anything that you post here. Others can only (automatically) acquire rights to your work in very limited circumstances, such as where it is created during the course of your employment. The site owners will own the copyright in the design of the site and, possibly, the underlying code (although it's more likely that the code is used under licence).
The UK Patent Office recommends that, if you want to protect work which you publish on the internet from commercial exploitation, you should use the international © mark. But you will have copyright in it (in most legal systems) whether or not you use that symbol, so I wouldn't worry about that too much. The practicalities of enforcing your rights where your work is commercially exploited, particularly if this occurs in another country, would however be likely to present difficulties.
By the way, in case anyone is concerned, quoting extracts from LotR or any other work, or other people's posts, on this site should present no problem as it will have marginal, if any, economic impact on the copyright owner, and should therefore fall within the "fair dealing" (under UK law at least, although I should imagine that this applies equally under most laws).
Thus endeth a further lesson in copyright law.
I now return you to your regular topic ...
Disclaimer: Whilst The Saucepan Man has endeavoured to ensure that this information is correct, in no event shall The Saucepan Man or the Barrow Downs be responsible for any loss or damage of whatever kind arising out of access to or use of or reliance on any information contained in The Saucepan Man's posts on this thread.
(Once a lawyer, always a lawyer.
)
Edit (having seen Bb's post above): Hmm, a difference of opinion. perhaps US law is different ...