JohnS said:
Copyright exists on original intellectual property and is by no means an automatic right on anything posted. Anything that has a research component such as gathered part numbers is in the public domain and can be used at will.
If you worked out a repair procedure that was unique and posted it on a forum you have clearly put it in the public domain and copyright would be expensive and difficult to pursue.
Another aspect of copyright is that you need to be able to demonstrate a loss as a result of the breach such as lost sales or lost web traffic. I can't see how you can suffer a loss on an abandoned web site.
The terms and conditions on your web site can say whatever you like but can not over ride common law and may or may not be enforceable. Either way it would be expensive to run with a prosecution and there would be little to gain.
A whois search on evocrew.com gives the following:
James Orr
PO BOX 1523
Coorparoo DC
Brisbane QLD 4151
Phone: +61.412931019
[email protected]
If this does not work look it up in the white pages there are only 2 listings in Coorparoo.
I hope this helps
JohnS
Hey John
You're correct in what you've said, but if I post an image on a forum it does not immediately make the image open within the public domain, Nor can you copy, save, distribute, modify or even quote it without it being a breach, much as a post is. Your words are your copyright.
This very post I quoted you on, is a technical breach of copyright, as I've taken your words, replicated them, and presented them in a post, as my own, even though I've credited you, without prior permission, I'm actually in a violation of copyright. However, if there was a T&C stating on joining the forum, that you agree to accepting someone quoting your words etc, then it would be allowed in is current form.
Copyright is such a grey area, and in the photographic industry is something I'm very passionate about, as I've had work stolen for financial gain, they could have paid a fee, but chose to steal my work instead.
in regards to T&C over-riding local law, this is correct. Recently a colleague of mine actually found that Tourism Australia had unfair T&C on a photo competition they were holding, in a technical sense, had they gone to caught, they government may have been liable for certain breaches. The funny thing about law (and this is my understanding) that it's how you interpret the law, and the text it's presented in. For example; If someone said "you can't wear a bow-tie on tuesdays" and it was set as law, you may be able to bypass it saying "well, it said tuesdays, I abided by it on the original tuesday that it was set on, and have only worn it on one instance, thus being a Tuesday, and not the plural "tuesdays". I may be wrong, but that is my understanding of law.
I do hope some good comes of all this, Eventually I do hope that Swoon gets back to people.
