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Using content from another forum
Topic Started: Mar 14 2014, 08:31 PM (569 Views)
cdf50
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So, to be super vague and to the point:

There's a forum that has a great foundation, but the head admin's gone a bit off the rails and the rest of the forum can't stand him/her. They want to have the same forum but without the head admin, so they want to make an essentially duplicate forum with just some stuff moved around. Head admin claims ZB will shut down the new forum for copyright infringement.

So the question is, is this correct?


Sorry if this answer is readily accessible somewhere. I searched through support forum, terms of use and terms of content, but couldn't find it.
Edited by cdf50, Mar 14 2014, 10:47 PM.
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Mozz
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" It’s not a bug – it’s an undocumented feature "
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No it isn't, anything from the net is basically free to use, regardless, i have and do a lot of work concerning law and copywrite, it is a useless threat. You need to relate to the site you get links from, but any opinion made be a member is an opinion only and cannot be tesed in a court of law.

READ HERE
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cdf50
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This is less of a legal concern and more of a question of ZB's policy on something like this.

Thanks for the reply, though
Edited by cdf50, Mar 15 2014, 01:45 PM.
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ElementalAlchemist
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If there's actually copyright infringement, we can act on the board (removing content or whatever), but the person who wants to accuse you of copyright infringement will have to go through the DMCA process (read: using the proper channels instead of expecting us to act on someone taking your word for it) If they do that, though, we're legally obligated to act on DMCA requests.
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silvershoes
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cdf50
Mar 14 2014, 08:31 PM
They want to have the same forum but without the head admin, so they want to make an essentially duplicate forum with just some stuff moved around. Head admin claims ZB will shut down the new forum for copyright infringement.

So the question is, is this correct?
Wouldn't that depend on what the "content" they want to duplicate is, exactly?

If it was something unique to that board and created by the head admin it might be a little harder to defend than just membership, posts, etc.

An earlier post said "anything from the net is basically free to use, regardless", and I can tell you categorically that's not true. People can be and are successfully sued often over that. I realize the OP almost has to be vague under the circumstances. But I can foresee scenarios where the admin might actually have a case.

???


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Mozz
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" It’s not a bug – it’s an undocumented feature "
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Your free to use info as is.

Edited this post.
Edited by Mozz, Mar 15 2014, 08:14 PM.
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cdf50
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Let me try to be more specific:

It's a forum that has many rules and information posts, and a certain system about the way it does things. These were all things that came about as a result of direct collaboration between the head admin and many others, but the end product was posted by the head admin, so it would appear to be under his name.

The root account of this forum, however, isn't actually in their name, as it's a shared root account, so technically he's not the head admin in a legal status, I guess. He is, however, the one that posted the finished product of the content that would be copied over (which would be the rules and systems and such).


And thanks for all your responses, so let me rephrase my question:

Would the rules and systems of a particular board be under copyright so that if the head admin were to file against it, we'd be unable to copy over that information?
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ksh
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Short answer: no. Ideas, systems, and methods of operation cannot be copyrighted; therefore, the board owner cannot file a copyright infringement. While the writing itself can be copyrighted, the idea itself cannot be protected by copyright. Since the board admin does not have the right to own such work (or post), it cannot be copyrighted. The possession of something alone cannot be protected by copyright.

You can keep the same system and methods of operation as the old forum, but you need not copy the writing exactly.
Edited by ksh, Mar 16 2014, 12:54 AM.
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cdf50
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ksh
Mar 16 2014, 12:53 AM
Short answer: no. Ideas, systems, and methods of operation cannot be copyrighted; therefore, the board owner cannot file a copyright infringement. While the writing itself can be copyrighted, the idea itself cannot be protected by copyright. Since the board admin does not have the right to own such work (or post), it cannot be copyrighted. The possession of something alone cannot be protected by copyright.

You can keep the same system and methods of operation as the old forum, but you need not copy the writing exactly.
Official confirmation of this would be fantastic, because this head admin in question has a relationship with some ZB official and it's proved obnoxious to us in the past, when such a situation arose before.
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Ryan
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You cannot post the original work of somebody else and claim that it is your own.

This post still contains the most relevant information to this topic.

Please give credit where credit is due, and then go off and be merry!
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cdf50
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And what if I were to use the content, but say that it was created by this head admin and modified by us? It'd be in every page of every instance of copied material.
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Ryan
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Please obtain the author's consent before modifying an original work.
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cdf50
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