Hi guys + gals...

 

I was considering ownership regarding user-submitted text, and at what point, and under what circumstances, that text becomes 'yours' to quote, rehash, etc at will.

 

Take a simple example first: A comment's form on a webpage. The user types in an alias and a message, clicks submit, and expects a comment to be displayed. The generally accepted assumption is that the comment will be displayed with attribution.

 

first ponderable: does the user then have the right to request its removal?

 

Let's complicate the example: assume we add an ajax based version to the form, and save the text as it is being typed (ignoring why)- as such the data can be saved to the server without the user hitting the submit button.

 

second ponderable: does the website have the right to use that half-typed data?

 

I guess it comes down to the idea the clicking the submit button is a shortcut way of saying "I agree to (unwritten) terms & conditions of ownership and fair usage".

 

This also affects non-typed data, such as the users IP adress, how long they stayed on the site, what they viewed... if the user is not signed in to the website (thus agreeing to the privacy policy by assumption) can we legitimately use that data - the user didn't agree to give it to us..

 

discuss.

The user is the one creating the comments, so I reckon we can assume that they automatically have IP rights. On the other hand, there's a kind of unspoken agreement that the comment will be displayed, unless it's for something like a product or service feedback form (basic assumption is probably that it will be read by the site owners only unless otherwise stated).

 

Let's assume it's for a forum/blog comment. They've come up with the thoughts, put it into writing and then submitted it to the site. By implication, when they submit it, they're giving permission for the site to publish ('cos that's kind've the point). Requesting for comments to be removed is a bit trickier.. but I would say no, they don't automatically have that right, because they've already given their permission for it to be published. There's nothing that expressly or implicitly says that the site has to accomodate further requests. So in short, they 'own' their comment but they've given the site permission to publish them as they were at the point of submission.

 

Regarding the half-typed data, I would say no, the site shouldn't use it. There should really be a submit button or similar, simply because that gives the user a way to say "ok, now I'm happy for you to publish what I've written". Taking their comments as their IP, they've not granted you the rights to use them. If I'm typing something that I think might be important in some way, I often go back and make edits before finally submitting to a site. I would be REALLY pissed off if my comments were used before I considered them 'finished'.

 

IP addresses are a bit different, I think - and what's a 'legitimate' use? I mean, you need to have user IP addresses for the site to function. I would count that as a 'legitimate' use. However, if you're thinking of using the IP address as part of profiling customers and selling on the marketing data, then no, I don't think you could really count that as legitimate. Agreeing to the site using an IP address for client/server communication is again there by implication because it's needed for basic functionality. Using it for profiling etc isn't, so I think you'd need their actual, non-implied agreement in the form of Terms & Conditions which they have to agree to.

 

I don't know how much of that would stand up legally, but ethically it'll do for me

 

So IP adress, yes (you could argue that an IP address belongs to the ISP anyway, not the user). The most difficult question for me would be over the other stuff you get in weblogs. I don't actually feel it's wrong to use it, but I find it quite hard to justify in words. Initially, I was thinking that it's ok because agreement is implicit again, but I don't think it is, really. I don't need to know things like the user's browser or screen resolution or what country they come from. I don't need to know what search terms they used to find my site, either (it's useful to me, but not actually required in order for them to interact with the server). I do think it would come under 'fair use' but I don't know how users in general would view it.. I'd imagine a lot of them hadn't really thought about it. I know I hadn't really thought about the ethics of using that stuff myself.. interesting area for discussion

I read a blog post about this the other day, but can't remember where.

 

It was basically asking on a blog, who owns the comments? The blog author or the author of the comment, and should the blog author be allowed to edit blog comments.