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Want to write a book based on posts in an internet forum - what legal aspects are involved?
I've asked a question on reddit dot com that would make for a very interesting book. For those who don't know, reddit is a site similiar to Y!A actually, except more of a forum in that people share links or ask questions, then other users can comment, and comments can be responded to, etc.
I'd like to make a book based on the questions I asked. Most likely I'd self publish it. I would probably take the actual comments/answers to my question and use them directly in the book (with maybe some basic grammatical editing).
What legalities are involved? I am thinking I probably have to get the user's permission, but not even sure since it is a public site. I would probably contact the users anyway.
The bigger question is with the site itself. Would the website reddit have any rights/ownerships over these posts that could cause trouble if I published them?
To be clear, the book would almost literlally be a collection of posted responses to a question on reddit. I may add some of my own writing as an introduction and such, but the bulk will be the posts.
4 Answers
- 9 years agoFavorite Answer
You absolutely need the permission of anyone whose posts you want to include in this book. They own the copyright in what they wrote, which means they have the right to decide who is allowed to reproduce it.
I'm too lazy to read reddit's specific terms of use, but every other site I've come across that allows users to post their own content asks for a non-exclusive license to display the content on that site and that site only. This doesn't affect the user's copyright or their ability to post the same content on other sites. It also doesn't give reddit or anyone else permission to post the content to another site or publish it in a book.
In other words, the fact that the content is on reddit has no effect on what you (Spec Tac) are allowed to do with it. reddit is, in effect, just acting as a way for you to find the content.
So you'll need to get permission from each person whose posts you want to include in the book, and be prepared to negotiate a license and pay them for it. Good luck...
- 9 years ago
I would really suggest seeking actual legal counsel if you're considering this, to be absolutely sure.
Copyright on things like that is going to be a little sticky. The terms of service for the site should specify whether they own rights to things posted there, you should read them carefully and see.
In general, copyright reverts to whoever created something- however there are limits to what can be copyrighted, and whether something falls under copyright or trademark laws.
You can't copyright a word or phrase, for instance (that's trademark territory, which is not free or automatically granted) and reproducing something said on a forum could fall under fair use anyway.
- SophieLv 49 years ago
No. You don't need to get his permission. It is legal to "quote" anyone from anything. As long as the majority of your book is your original work and you give a Bibliography to show where you got your quotes, it is all good.
- 5 years ago
No, all these rights held by way of the writer and writer. Chances are unless the recipe is how to spin gold out of your a$$, they won't make a significant deal about it. That you can continuously share it with a friend, however whenever you put it up on a website online or on the internet, you've gotten committed a criminal offense. Which you could make some editions to the recipe and take your own picture.
