Do Users Own Their Posts? Is There a Compelled License for User Content?

[warpanomaly]

I am new to this forum. Before I start sharing code and stuff like that, if I post something (and am the original author), do I still own it? And am I still free to license that content how I choose? I ask this because I've heard of forums where the terms and conditions contains something about all posts being CC-BY-SA or GPL etc... No offense to those licenses, but personally I'm not a fan of copyleft licenses. I prefer the MIT license for open source code. 

To summarize... Do us forum users own the code we post on "https://bitcointalk.org" and if so, are we compelled to license our posts under a specific license like CC-BY-SA or GPL? 

Please provide a source if you can.

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[Ambatman]

Yes, everything posted are owned by the users
That's why they don't condole plagiarism here.
Many users that have created certain apps or website that has helped improved the usage of the forum still have ownership to their creation's.

Examples we have users like Powergloves in creating the OP system, TryNinja Telegram Bot as well as his Talklmg for images.
I can't really find the threads so there might be errors in my examples
but I believe you understand what am trying to say.

Many users even drop their code here for reviews by fellow experts in cases of a roadblock or lapse in knowledge.

[ABCbits]

It's good question. But there's no explicit answer since this forum doesn't have ToS page and privacy page[1] doesn't mention anything relevant. While personally i don't expect this forum to steal ownership of your code, i'd recommend you to explicitly mention license if you choose to share your code.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/privacy.php

[OcTradism]

If you want to publish your open source code, do it with Github.

After your publish it on Github, you can share it on Bitcoin talk with source link to your Github account.

With your post on Bitcointalk, you can use archive websites like Wayback machine https://web.archive.org/ and other archive websites.

I am thinking that if you worry that someone steal your code, why do you want share your code publicly?

[KingsDen]

Do Users Own Their Posts? Is There a Compelled License for User Content?

This is a good question and I was longing for this question. I didn't want to ask about it and I was somewhat lazy to search through the forum to know if it has been discussed before. My idea of this question came when Ratimov deleted some posts of his that were so relevant to the community. No one questioned his behaviour in a way of stopping him. That is because he owns the contents and they are his intellectual properties. Having received hundreds of merits for such post, didn't change that fact that those contents were his.

Based on the instance above, I can conclude that the forum does not own any post, including the one made by admin. This is just an open forum where people help one another with their knowledge. Here is not a higher institution or a company.

[DaveF]

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV but from what I have seen from other sites over the years decades I have been using forums and similar the answer is no.
The minute you hit post it's in free public domain. You could probably put something in the code as a license but it would have to be in very post that you make with it.

As @OcTradism said use github or similar.

It's also going to depend a bit on where you are in the world.

-Dave

[Apocollapse]

I am thinking that if you worry that someone steal your code, why do you want share your code publicly?

He might want to give some contribution and at the same time don't want his code to be used without mentioning the original source.

My idea of this question came when Ratimov deleted some posts of his that were so relevant to the community. No one questioned his behaviour in a way of stopping him. That is because he owns the contents and they are his intellectual properties. Having received hundreds of merits for such post, didn't change that fact that those contents were his.

Really? how does someone can ask him to stop it if he want to do it? many users were actually talk about him.

1. Should Ratimov aka Symmetrick be in DT1?
2. Ratimov is deleting self-moderated topics. He now goes onto my Ignore list.

I'm not sure with "those contents were his" if you read Merit Source - Plagiarist

[hugeblack]

Since the forum is open to everyone, everything you post is available to everyone, provided that the author’s name is mentioned at the end of the text and that it appears as a quote with a link to the topic. If you find someone who has plagiarized one of your posts, report him.
As for the codes, you need to add the license type with the code, but the forum is not an ideal place to post the codes because some letters in the codes may not appear after clicking on the publish button.

[KingsDen]

My idea of this question came when Ratimov deleted some posts of his that were so relevant to the community. No one questioned his behaviour in a way of stopping him. That is because he owns the contents and they are his intellectual properties. Having received hundreds of merits for such post, didn't change that fact that those contents were his.

Really? how does someone can ask him to stop it if he want to do it? many users were actually talk about him.

1. Should Ratimov aka Symmetrick be in DT1?
2. Ratimov is deleting self-moderated topics. He now goes onto my Ignore list.

I'm not sure with "those contents were his" if you read Merit Source - Plagiarist

Yes, the forum participants talked about it but no one was able to stop him. No one I mean is the mod or the admin. If it were a forum where the contents posted doesn't belong to the poster, he would have been sanctioned or banned. But letting everything slide made me believe the forum is a good definition of freedom. Even at the heat of the matter, his forum alias was still changed.
I'm not particular about him, but he is the only good example I know that fits OP questions.

[JollyGood]

I am surprised this question has not been asked before (or maybe more appropriately, I have not seen it being asked). As it is a forum one would expect there to be no ownership over the posts therefore anybody could use what was written regardless of the author. If that were the opposite it could involve legal complications.

Reporting plagiarised posts and other contraventions would be classed as local rules for this forum rather than legislation. Other than that I would suspect you would have to add licences to every post you make in order to allow others to use what you wrote if your claim ownership, however once it is posted online I suppose it defeats the object.

[Adbitco]

I don't see any reason someone will steal you content over here without referencing the real author being you or any other person, i can personally say that there are some people who are active in checking some of the content posted by some users to know if those contents are plagiarism or not. But in most cases such person has been reported for plagiarism and there is a punishment for them either being ban or tag for stealing people's content without providing source link. So any post you made here provided you do not copy from any site you still stands as the original author and anyone can quote you or reference you as the op.

[Mpamaegbu]

If you want to publish your open source code, do it with Github.

After your publish it on Github, you can share it on Bitcoin talk with source link to your Github account.

I think that's the best way to go about as GitHub gives a more professional content creator exposure than BTT does. Besides, it also puts it out there so other tech savvy peeps see what's up.

I am thinking that if you worry that someone steal your code, why do you want share your code publicly?

Well, you do have a point there. But of course, it could be that OP is interested in showing how transparent they're with whatever innovation they want to run by making it an open source. That's the way I see it. I may be wrong.

[yhiaali3]

I do not know if there are rules in the forum regarding this, but I believe that once the post is published, it will become the property of the forum and is no longer yours alone.

Such a question was raised about the rights of members and the rights of the forum when a member deleted a post containing good educational content. The objection was: Does he have the right to delete this educational content after he published it on the forum or not? But I think we haven't got a clear answer yet.

[EarnOnVictor]

I haven't read all the rules, terms and conditions of the forum back to back to ascertain this. But it can't be any different from other forums' terms and conditions. You don't have any right to the content by law but the forum itself in which you participate, nonetheless, you own the right of authorship. This means that you can use the link for your purposes (external and otherwise) and you can give anyone the right to use the link or excerpts from the body therein without any restriction. All these with no penalty whatsoever from any external concerns.

But having the absolute right so long it is here? You can't as the host will continue to own it. That makes it complicated a bit.

[ABCbits]

I am thinking that if you worry that someone steal your code, why do you want share your code publicly?

It's not true, OP already state he want to be owner of the code with MIT license over other copyleft license. It's up to other people whether they honor such license or not.

I do not know if there are rules in the forum regarding this, but I believe that once the post is published, it will become the property of the forum and is no longer yours alone.

Do you have any specific reason to think all posts created by user is property of the forum?

Such a question was raised about the rights of members and the rights of the forum when a member deleted a post containing good educational content. The objection was: Does he have the right to delete this educational content after he published it on the forum or not? But I think we haven't got a clear answer yet.

The forum provide delete button for reply on most condition, so i'd say yes.

[Doan9269]

The forum has it own rules which goes against plagiarism, that alone talked more about yu creating every content of yiur post by yourself except where reference us needed, so if you make a post, it's yours and belongs to you, even when you deleted such, it could be revived back, but there's no a legal statement that back this up, which means, this forum is giving everyone the opportunity to be have freedom and on the same way never to abuse it in stealing others people's content to claim ours.

[Mia Chloe]

Of course users here have full rights to their posts.that is why plagiarism is not condoled here.
It is also important for you to Note that when making a post you should also put reference sources you used for your research as this would prevent you from be accused of plagiarism.
If you wish to publish or create a code here on this forum , and you wish to have full credit you can first publish it on a place like GitHub first before bringing it here.

[BenCodie]

Everyone has the ability to edit and delete their posts. With this ability, it's fair to say that they have full control over their posts. Though as was with any centralized service or website, this can easily change. If BitcoinTalk were to take away these abilities, or were to go down, the database will belong to the administrator and therefore all user content will be in the ownership of administration.

So, while we have ownership for now, this can easily be revoked at any point, and it's best to keep this in mind if that is a problem for you