Questions regarding Terms of Service

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I'm not sure who to ask, so I will post here.

Terms of Service here:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/tos.txt

Under the Rights section, it says:
"By posting to the forums, or any other sections of this site, you signify agreement that you
are giving WrongPlanet permission to use, modify, and reproduce your submission, in part or
in whole, in any way, shape, form, or method in which we decide to do so, at any point in
the present or future at our discretion.

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Does this mean if I post original poetry, you (wrongplanet.net) can use it at anytime in the future with no credit at all to me? By credit I mean my name, or attributing it to me specifically, rather than a general "one of our readers writes" thing?

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Also, in that same section, it says:
"Any and all information posted on WrongPlanet.net may not be copied or used elsewhere, in
any way, shape, or form, either on the Internet or in print without express written consent
of an owner of WrongPlanet.net.

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Does that mean if I write poetry and post it here, that I cannot ever copy and paste my own poetry elsewhere?

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I have no problem with not copying and pasting other people's stuff. It's THEIR stuff. But I do want to reserve the rights to my OWN stuff. I would hate to put together a book of "Crappy Poetry I Wrote", have it be a best seller, and then get sued by Wrong Planet (and all the other sites I've posted poetry on), taking me back to where I am...

Poor. Very very poor. And depressed. I'd be more depressed if I put out a book and then had everything taken away. Now I don't even want to write a book. Hahahaha! But I am serious about wanting to know about the rights of writers here on Wrong Planet. And of anyone else who does anything from their heart or mind. If someone posts a delicious family recipe, Wrong Planet shouldn't get the rights to that tasty, wholesome goodness and be allowed to package that recipe for sale at your local grocers. I'm so Aspie today.

Yes, it's good to be here.

You've just put my attention to this TRUE! Some of the stuff in my story was written on WP first and put into my story officially later, and also I'd like rights to the Create-a-fanfic I'm doing in Roleplay (may make a good book!).

I know that people could just swipe stuff from all over the Internet, and they usually do. And that is what makes it hard for sites to monitor activity, especially with bandwidth theft. I know and understand what bandwidth theft is, and I explain it to other people.

I know that if the folks here at Wrong Planet spent all their time working on a blog or article, it would be terrible to find that someone else had swiped it, and was perhaps even taking credit for it. I have seen that happen before.

It doesn't have to be someone famous who wrote it, but if someone else wrote it, it's not ours to take. Other than perhaps quoting and/or providing the link. I'm big on links. So people can read more about any subject that I have posted a quote from.

I have seen problems with music, as we have all heard, way back with Napster? Was that it? People stopped buying music at stores, because they could get it for free. And the music industry was upset. For a good reason. Things were changed as a result.

There are many kinds of creativity, and if we make a story or poem or create artwork or music and post it here, we should know that our stuff won't be taken by others. Not the site owners, and not strangers either.

On the other hand, the site owners SHOULD be able to use our words, for instance, in the promotion of their site. And those words may not have to be attributed specifically to us. It might be like movie reviews, so that Wrong Planet might have some news story in 2 years, and use our words from today, where we say "Wrong Planet helped me in ways 10 years of therapy never did" or something like that. LOL!

Sort of "our members say", and that's okay. I might not even want my name associated with those specific words. It would depend on what the words were and what my life situation was.

There ARE "out" issues. Not everyone knows I'm Aspie. I just found out last year myself anyway. But if I was in a career, I might not want that known. I've already seen what happens when I tell people I'm disabled with back pain. I get called names, like slacker or welfare scum (I'm not even ON welfare). As if I'm faking my pain. It's NOT fake.

Or when I have talked about Depression. I am clinically depressed. That brings up those lovely "better up your meds" comments or "you need to change therapists" or something else equally offensive (and against most all rules, picking on people for their disability is right there with race and religion and ethnicity, etc).

So I probably wouldn't cop to the Aspie label if I was recently diagnosed and also had a career. It would change perceptions. It always does. Anything we admit or have problems with, it changes perceptions. We lose the ability to be seen as whole people and are often labeled with only these things: The depressed one. The Aspie one. The disabled one.

I think I'll just stick with "The Weird One".

I already know what happens when I say I'm Aspie. I get called ret*d. I get made fun of. I get picked on a lot. Even an NT that supposedly knows better had no real clue sometimes, OR used the Aspie thing to pick on me (Knowing the traits of Aspies, he used it against me and got me in trouble).

I don't want to be picked on anymore.

And I wouldn't want it to originate from Wrong Planet in some future review, with my name attached to a comment. Yeah, I know, the whole world could search for this stuff, but that's not the point.

Nothing to worry about more than the usual.

The site does have to have the right to edit and delete as needed. The use, modify, reproduce, gives the right to the whole quote thing, you can be quoted out of context.

The claim of Copyright is covering the theme of Wrong Planet.

Those rights rightfully belong to Alex.

Original works become Copyright to their creators when they are put in tangible form, writing, music, art.

One problem is the posters, they fail to put Copyright, the year, and theiir name on their work. That puts it in the public domain, given away.

Because we are hiding behind user names, the, may not be copied, covers everything on this site with a claim of Copyright. There is no question of ownership, the creator copyright stands, there is a formal transfer through the Patent Office for transfering rights, and nothing without that stands up.

As for theft, there are a lot of theives, but most lack talent.

The law grants creators rights when created, even if they do not file. uspto.gov has the forms, for $10, and two copies, a pile of work can be formally Copyrighted. It is an internationl law, so KBABZ can file in NZ for worldwide rights.

I would advise doing so. You have years into creating a world and the people. You should pay the 200 coconuts or sea shells, dried fish, or whatever you people use in trade, and get worldwide rights, then every couple of years do the same with your new stuff.

The Terms of Service is what is called Standard Boilerplate. It covers limited and lawful use, protecting both Wrong Planet, and the members. Intellectual Property is an obsession of mine. Alex did it right.

If your work is stolen, you are in much better position if you have a formal Copyright.

Life is full of it. Think about defending your work, pay the $10. Make three copies, two go to the Patent Office, the third for your records. They will do a two foot high stack of paper for $10. Shipping will cost more. For KBABZ an outline of the story, who the charecters are, their names, your drawings, say ten pages, would cover your concept.

I one way you are covered, by posting the story here, evidence of who created it when. That can be cited in an infringement action, but the Patent Office is the ace of spades.

Hello TRUE, I write lots. Glad to meet you.

Yeah technically you own what you post but your given dual rights to WP. So if you post an entire book on WP you wrote. WP could sale that work and not pay you royalties and you could also still sale the book (not having to pay WP royalties).

And what others post on WP you do not own. So you can not collect all my posts for example and sale a book reproducing them when I get rich and famous. But WP can since it has dual rights to those posts.

Thats normal thing media companies have in thier TOS by the way. Myspace, Youtube, etc. From a practically stand point it would be bad for business for those companies to
try to use their dual rights in a way that would appear to be ripping off their user base so its unlikely you will see your book of Poems with a WP copyright. Ideally you need your own website that gives you 100% rights to your work and then post small parts to
WP. And provide links to your own website if people want to read more.

TheMachine1:

If it is ideal to have our own websites where we can protect our words or work, taken to the extreme, none of us would be here on WP. Other than to post a link to our site. And no one would respond on our site, other than to post a link back to their site, so we can view their response.

There is a trust thing involved. Only problem is that people that are trustworthy are not the ones to worry about. If someone adds to the Haiku thread, and it's the only Haiku they have ever written, and never write another one, they probably won't be applying for copyright protections.

And six months later they find a whole line of cards and products at the Hallmark store with their poem. Okay, that doesn't happen often, but it could. Probably up there in odds with a wheelbarrow of cash appearing at my door as likely to happen.

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Inventor: Thanks for the explanation. On several sites I've asked about that thing in their TOS and never got a response as detailed. I began to wonder if the people running the site even knew what it meant. As it might be a certain kind of legalese that is understood in one way by law and another way by regular people. And who knows how I'd interpret it.

What is KBABZ? I kept thinking it was a radio station. I'm guessing now that's not it. And also, what is PSOT? I think that was it. It said that all PSOT should go in some folder. I don't know what that is, so I can't put it in the right place and I don't want to get in trouble for that.

No writer/artist are a special case. Most of us are not planning to ever make any money
off our posts here. If your worried about maintaining total control of your words then do not post them here. If on the other hand you want to get some free publicity for your works then post small excepts here and link back to the main text on your own site.

TRUE,

Few people understand the meaning of those words, they are disputed by Federal Judges on a case by case basis.

In general, Alex has the right to reuse this material, here, in the news letter, maybe a book, The Best of Wrong Planet. It is a limited right, and I think selling it to Hallmark would not work, as he only has a partial use right. All rights not claimed by WP are still protected by the WP claim, and still the legal property of the creator.

Under the Fair Use Doctrine, I can quote a Copyright paragraph from a book, as long as I list the source, without permission from the Copyright owner. I would think the same would apply to the web, I could quote your statment, and say it is from WP, that is fair use.

Absolute Truth is a five to four decision from the Supreme Court, under USC35 it does not apply to cases yet to be ajudicated.

A KBABZ is a form of New Zeland wildlife that writes on coconut bark. They are generally harmless unless you have cocolate, then you are in danger of losing a pocket. Just give them the cocolate, and they will tell you stories. Check Roleplaying and games, Outcast story, about half way down the first page.

PSOT IS EVIL! The Great Cat God will hear of this! They would like to trap you with a folder of PSOT, dont fall for it.

I'll give Inventor the classic award. Do I have to Copyright that as well?