Quote:
Originally Posted by derangedhermit
What about in the legal sense?
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I can only assume that the normal laws of copyright apply. In particular, the person who writes the post owns the copyright to that post. I don't think there can be any doubt about that. But, arguably, the forum owns the physical manifestation of the post.
This is no different than if you send someone a letter. You (the person who writes the letter) own the copyright - the intellectual property, if you will. But the recipient owns the actual letter itself - the physical ink and paper on which it's written. That person is free to do anything they like with the physical letter, including selling it and keeping the proceeds.
If that's right, that suggests that the forum is free to continue to display the post for as long as it wishes. It is under no obligation to delete a post just because the poster asks them to do so (unless agreed otherwise in their terms & conditions).
It's not so very different from sending a letter for publication in a newspaper. If the sender changes his mind and decides he doesn't want the letter published after all, the newspaper is under no obligation to respect that wish.
At least, that is my (non-expert) opinion. I doubt if it has ever been tested in the courts, but it would be interesting to know if it has.
Mike