4 ms·

The guy posted it in 4chan, an anonymous image board. Shouldn't that make it public domain? If he copyrighted it after that, shouldn't people be able to use the

The guy posted it in 4chan, an anonymous image board. Shouldn't that make it public domain? If he copyrighted it after that, shouldn't people be able to use the version of the image they got before the copyright? Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author anyway?

krapp 11y ago
>Shouldn't that make it public domain? If that were true, wouldn't every copyrighted image or torrent posted to 4chan automatically lose its copyright status? IANAL, but in the US at least, copyright is automatically held by the creator of a work whether or not it's explicitly licensed[0]. Posting something to a forum doesn't affect the rights held by the owner in any way, at best it just ignores them. >Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author anyway? There are a ton of sites which keep archives of 4chan threads. [0]http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-automatic.html http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-automatic.h...
snowwrestler 11y ago
> The guy posted it in 4chan, an anonymous image board. Shouldn't that make it public domain? It doesn't. A copyright holder can do whatever they want with their copyrighted content, including paste it to a free website, without losing their copyright. Only a legal document like a license or a contract can put a piece of copyrighted content into public domain before the copyright expires. > If he copyrighted it after that, shouldn't people be able to use the version of the image they got before the copyright? Copyright is created when content is created. You now hold a copyright on your comment, and I hold a copyright on my comment (this one you're reading right now). I'm quoting your comment to provide commentary on it, which is a protected fair use. But if I took your comment and pasted it on a t-shirt, sold it for $20 per shirt and sold 100,000 of them, you would be within your rights to sue for a cut of that money. > Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author anyway? This is the sort of the thing that a court case will decide. He'll try to prove he is, and the defense will try to prove that he is not.

krapp 11y ago

>Shouldn't that make it public domain? If that were true, wouldn't every copyrighted image or torrent posted to 4chan automatically lose its copyright status? IANAL, but in the US at least, copyright is automatically held by the creator of a work whether or not it's explicitly licensed[0]. Posting something to a forum doesn't affect the rights held by the owner in any way, at best it just ignores them. >Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author anyway? There are a ton of sites which keep archives of 4chan threads. [0]http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-automatic.html http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-automatic.h...

snowwrestler 11y ago

> The guy posted it in 4chan, an anonymous image board. Shouldn't that make it public domain? It doesn't. A copyright holder can do whatever they want with their copyrighted content, including paste it to a free website, without losing their copyright. Only a legal document like a license or a contract can put a piece of copyrighted content into public domain before the copyright expires. > If he copyrighted it after that, shouldn't people be able to use the version of the image they got before the copyright? Copyright is created when content is created. You now hold a copyright on your comment, and I hold a copyright on my comment (this one you're reading right now). I'm quoting your comment to provide commentary on it, which is a protected fair use. But if I took your comment and pasted it on a t-shirt, sold it for $20 per shirt and sold 100,000 of them, you would be within your rights to sue for a cut of that money. > Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author anyway? This is the sort of the thing that a court case will decide. He'll try to prove he is, and the defense will try to prove that he is not.