Who owns the copyright to reviews and comments?

1. 95

   Solarasposted 9 years ago

   When someone makes a comment on a hub, blog post or creates a product review, who owns the copyright to that comment? 
   
   Does Amazon own the copyright for product reviews?  Does Hubpages or the Hub author own the copyright to comments?  Is there even a copyright for such snippets?

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   1. 89

      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm only guessing, but I would think if it's on your Hub or blog post it's yours; because you own the content on those two places. If it's on a sort of public place, like the forums, then it's property of the site.
      
      I was actually wondering this same thing just a minute ago. Sometimes people take screen shots of comments and use them in articles and I was wondering about the legality of that: It occurred to me after reading an article on another site in which the author used a screen shot of a comment from a forum from another site.

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   2. 72

      relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Anything you post outside of your Hubs on the HubPages site becomes property of HubPages.

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      1. 95

         Solarasposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         So on Amazon, the product reviews are property of Amazon, and Amazon holds the copyright?

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         1. 84

            psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            No.  Amazon does not assert copyright on reviews.  You agree to give them a wide "license" to use it but you retain copyright. 
            
            http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/ … amp;sr=1-5
            
            The easiest way to answer these questions is to go right to the site in question and read their terms of service yourself.
            
            In neither case does the author of the content have the right to use reviewers comments without permission although some will use very short excerpts in the hope of getting away with it or having that counted as fair use.

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         2. 72

            relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            My comments here were about HubPages and have nothing to do with Amazon. 
            
            By the way, have you ever considered reading the terms of use for any of these sites in which you are participating?

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      2. 91

         chasmacposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That's not right. People often post images (a form of content) either belonging to others or their own here on the forums. Those certainly don't belong to HubPages. That would mean all of Mark Ewbie's stickmen images that he's posted now belong to HubPages and he would need their permission to post them anywhere else. No way!
         HP can claim the usual royalty-free perpetual usage rights to legally uploaded images as they do for Hub content, but there's no legal transfer of copyright involved. They don't 'own' the images. So, I don't see how text in the form of comments should be any different

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2. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   The writer of the review owns the copyright, the website terms of service specify which subsidiary rights the writer is giving to the owners of the website--normally the right to publish online and some limited ability to use in publicity for that site.

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3. 57

   ghostly1posted 9 years ago

   Its said anything you originally create is automatically copy writed to the creator but actual documents to copy write something are only used for intellectual property that can produce revenue.
   
   I could be wrong on this but understand copy write laws, especially concerning when you can and can't use something in your works that you plan to sell is a huge worry of mine. No matter how much i read about it I still have problems understand the terms of service on stuff.

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   1. 84

      psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That is incorrect.  Copyright attaches to every creative work in fixed form at the moment of creation.  There are no stipulations about it being a commercial work.
      
      http://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html#what

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4. 72

   relacheposted 9 years ago

   Here is what is really pertinent, boiled down.  There are two types of content on this site:   Hub and Author.
   
   Hub content you may remove.  Author content you may not.
   
   http://hubpages.com/help/user_agreement
   
   There are a significant number of long-time site users, such as myself, who are do not post original, proprietary work into any areas deemed Author content because you do then lose control of that material.  Mark clearly doesn't feel that way, that's all.

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   1. 91

      chasmacposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's interesting to note in the TOS (although slightly off topic from the original question) that ALL our photos, even those on our hubs, are classed as 'author content', meaning unlike 'Hub content' (Hub text, videos, etc.) they face the same removal restrictions as all other author content (comments, questions, etc). But that's the only control that's lost. They can keep those "copies" of our Hub photos (and our avatars and Mark's stickmen, etc.) for ever and ever and use them in ways allowed under the royalty-free licence that we automatically granted them, but they have no control over our use of the images, because, as the TOS confirms, "HubPages does not claim ownership of Your Hub Content or Author Content." - which brings us nicely back on topic. I knew I'd get there eventually :-)

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5. 78

   Uzochukwu Mikeposted 9 years ago

   I think that comments on your hub is owned by Hubpages because the site is owned by them. Also, what you owe is your content.

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   1. 84

      psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Please read the previous answers.  This is incorrect.  There is a difference between granting the site license to post your comments and handling over copyright.

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