18 ms·

Ask HN: How are HN user comments licensed?

15 points by rapnie 5y ago

IANAL and as such I am unsure how the comments on HN may or may not be used, quoted and attributed elsewhere. What is the license that applies, or did I just overlook the obvious answer?

verdverm 5y ago
> By uploading any User Content you hereby grant and will grant Y Combinator and its affiliated companies a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid up, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable license to copy, display, upload, perform, distribute, store, modify and otherwise use your User Content for any Y Combinator-related purpose in any form, medium or technology now known or later developed. See the legal link at the bottom. There is more, about 2/3 the way down.
- rapnie 5y ago
  Yes, it tells me I should hold the copyright to what I post here and that HN can do anything with it forever afterwards, and that packaged in a whole bunch of legalese. It does not tell me with what license it is available to others. Given that everyone is reusing HN content in their own sites I'd be inclined to think that they have the same extensive rights. But that's just my guesswork.
  - brudgers 5y ago
    If someone reusing your HN comments on another site matters to you, hire a lawyer. If it doesn’t matter to you, then it doesn’t matter to you.
  - systoll 5y ago
    The privacy policy establishes that ycombinator can make our comments part of their site content. The Terms of Use establish that readers can read the site and that's about it: > [...] you agree not to modify, copy, frame, scrape, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Site or the Site Content, in whole or in part, except that the foregoing does not apply to your own User content...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dTal 5y ago
  Let me get this straight. Y Combinator claims the right to assemble a compendium of all of my comments, change 20% of them to include offhand remarks about how much I despise gays and Muslims and adore poor grammar and Microsoft, title it "The Wisdom and Folly of dTal", bind it in hardback, and sell it? Movie rights too?
  - krapp 5y ago
    Yes, and this is essentially the same set of rights that all social media platforms claim over user content.
  - DiggyJohnson 5y ago
    Yes, that’s how much internet communication works.
  - nhinck2 5y ago
    No because that would be defamatory (I assume).
  - speedgoose 5y ago
    You may have moral rights preventing them to do that : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights As a Frenchman my moral rights are inalienable but I’m not sure I could realistically force HN to respect them because the European court probably has more important tasks.

15 points by rapnie 5y ago

IANAL and as such I am unsure how the comments on HN may or may not be used, quoted and attributed elsewhere. What is the license that applies, or did I just overlook the obvious answer?

verdverm 5y ago

> By uploading any User Content you hereby grant and will grant Y Combinator and its affiliated companies a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid up, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable license to copy, display, upload, perform, distribute, store, modify and otherwise use your User Content for any Y Combinator-related purpose in any form, medium or technology now known or later developed. See the legal link at the bottom. There is more, about 2/3 the way down.

rapnie 5y ago
Yes, it tells me I should hold the copyright to what I post here and that HN can do anything with it forever afterwards, and that packaged in a whole bunch of legalese. It does not tell me with what license it is available to others. Given that everyone is reusing HN content in their own sites I'd be inclined to think that they have the same extensive rights. But that's just my guesswork.
- brudgers 5y ago
  If someone reusing your HN comments on another site matters to you, hire a lawyer. If it doesn’t matter to you, then it doesn’t matter to you.
- systoll 5y ago
  The privacy policy establishes that ycombinator can make our comments part of their site content. The Terms of Use establish that readers can read the site and that's about it: > [...] you agree not to modify, copy, frame, scrape, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute or create derivative works based on the Site or the Site Content, in whole or in part, except that the foregoing does not apply to your own User content...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
dTal 5y ago
Let me get this straight. Y Combinator claims the right to assemble a compendium of all of my comments, change 20% of them to include offhand remarks about how much I despise gays and Muslims and adore poor grammar and Microsoft, title it "The Wisdom and Folly of dTal", bind it in hardback, and sell it? Movie rights too?
- krapp 5y ago
  Yes, and this is essentially the same set of rights that all social media platforms claim over user content.
- DiggyJohnson 5y ago
  Yes, that’s how much internet communication works.
- nhinck2 5y ago
  No because that would be defamatory (I assume).
- speedgoose 5y ago
  You may have moral rights preventing them to do that : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights As a Frenchman my moral rights are inalienable but I’m not sure I could realistically force HN to respect them because the European court probably has more important tasks.