Who owns the copyright of my posts on this forum?

[Chris336]

Good morning!

I have a question. When I write and post content on this forum,  do I relinquish copyright ownership of my material? I went back to the registration form to find this out,  but I didn't see anything.  Thanks!

[Modification: added an 's' to 'owns' in the Subject of the thread. --Chris366]

[Kizzie]

Good question Chris.  In short, while you are the copyright owner by posting on the forum you have accepted the terms that this type of publication' implies and have given the site administrators permission to use your work. That is, you accept that your content will be published at OOTS and that the site administrators have the right to retain, edit or delete your post(s) as they see fit (as laid out in the OOTS Member Guidelines). One difference here at OOTS is that we do allow members to delete their own posts if they so wish (although we prefer that members don't because it leaves gaps in threads, especially if the member has been quite active.)

Thanks for raising this though, I will make this clearer in both the registration and guidelines sections so that members know clearly what's what from the get go. 

[Chris336]

"by posting on the forum you have accepted the terms that this type of publication' implies"
"given the site administrators permission to use your work"
"the site administrators have the right to retain, edit or delete your post(s) as they see fit"

Kizzie,
Thank you for your quick response. I understand that for the safety of the readers of this site, the administrators and moderators need to maintain the right to delete things from it, or to modify things on it. I used to co-moderate a forum a few years back and would need to delete things, modify things, or even on occasion, ban a user after repeated warnings about rule violations.

I would appreciate more explicit language than what you've written. What is implied in this phrase  "the terms that this type of publication implies?" What terms are implied by posting on "this type of publication?" Rather than implying it, could you tell me explicitly?

Can the site administrators re-publish my posts, for example, in a book or in a blog, without my explicit permission in writing?

Are they permitted to financially profit by doing so?

Can the site administrators modify my work, creating a derived work, and publish it?

Can they do so without my knowledge?

Can the site administrators re-publish my work, or a work derived from my work, without crediting my username in the resulting work(s)?

If the site administrators of this community are committed to refraining from re-publishing the community participants' original works in other works not on this forum, then please consider adding something in writing to this effect to the registration and guideline sections.

On the other hand, if such language is missing from those sections, I will assume that the site administrators are reserving for themselves the right to re-publish original works posted here in blogs, books, or other places, and also reserving for themselves the right to create derivative works from original works posted here, and do whatever they wish with those derivative works.

Pete Walker talks about "self-protection" in his book. I haven't read far enough along to understand what he means by the phrase, but I believe it's healthy for me to understand how my writings about my recovery on this site could be legally used by people other than myself, and if they are permitted to financially profit by them now or in the future.

I want to be clear - I'm tremendously grateful this community exists, and for all of the hard work that the site administrators and moderators perform to keep it running smoothly and safely. When I ask these questions, I'm not doing so in harsh criticism of the administrators or moderators. I'm quite thankful for their service. My questions are to help improve the understanding of the partnership between the administrators/moderators of the site, and the rest of the participants in the site. This partnership is a relationship which could become very important to me in the future; understanding the roles in the relationship is therefore also very important.

Thank you!
-Chris336

[Kizzie]

I understand your concerns Chris. I will look into the questions you have posed. It will be next week or later though as I just moved and am knee neck deep in all that entails.   

You may wish to hold off making posts until then. Or you can always delete your posts if you're not satisfied with the terms I come up with (although as I mentioned the latter is not ideal because it leaves gaps). 

[Chris336]

I understand your concerns Chris. I will look into the questions you have posed. It will be next week or later though as I just moved and am knee neck deep in all that entails.   

You may wish to hold off making posts until then. Or you can always delete your posts if you're not satisfied with the terms I come up with (although as I mentioned the latter is not ideal because it leaves gaps).

Kizzie,
Thank you for looking into this. I'll understand if it takes a while to update.

I believe, although I'm not certain, that my post on 2019-10-27, 13:57:07 is probably a result of my "Outer Critic" voice spinning out of control.   

I'm learning that my Outer Critic voice persuades me that I need protection when I'm getting too close to forming new, potentially healthy, relationships. Maybe my discovering this forum and participating here was too triggering, getting too close to other people I don't know. The whole "I can't trust these people" catastrophizing process cranks up. Then I write a post like the one above which is probably way overboard.

I'm kind of stubborn, and now that I know I have an Outer Critic voice undermining my attempts at forming closer, healthier relationships, I'm not going to let it scare me away from other people. I also need to learn how to stop my Outer Critic from scaring other people away from me.

-Chris336

[Three Roses]

I struggled with a strong outer critic for a long time. I still can hear it but it's muted now, through time and experience. I totally understand how you would feel really uncomfortable and want to (unknowingly, of course) push back a little to relieve the discomfort.

Outer critics are formed as a survival necessity. It served you and helped you. When we are safe, they become obsolete, and sometimes dysfunctional. We are then free to re examine their role, and whether or not we can rein them in a bit. But a healthy amount of skepticism, I think, is a good thing.

Also, I didn't think your post was "overboard", rather it was a very good question imo.

I'm also very tired right now and hoping I'm making sense... 

[Kizzie]

I think they were good questions too Chris and it didn't scare me away.  Actually if you're up for it maybe you and I can work together on getting some info/thoughts together about what works best for all of us here in terms of copyright.     I am nowhere near caught up after moving so can't get into it full on yet but happy to bounce some ideas around.

[Kizzie]

Here's what I added to the Member Guidelines today.

Terms of Use

By joining this forum you agree to abide by the OOTS Member Guidelines and give the Site Administrator/ Moderators permission to retain, edit or delete any of your posts that contravene these guidelines. Administrators/Moderators/others (e.g., researchers, authors) are not permitted to use/publish posts in any other context without the explicit written permission of the poster. In cases where a poster has left the forum and cannot be reached, permission may be granted by the Site Administrator.

[Chris336]

Thank you, Kizzie 

[bluepalm]

Thank you Kizzie and Chris 336. A great question and a good clear result.