this post was submitted on 16 Dec 2023
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Fediverse

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Who owns what we post?

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Nobody. It's a public forum, anyone can take what you said and use it as their own.

From technical side, instance admins, community moderators, and you have the ability to remove them.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think some user content may be subject to copyright. Depends on local law.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In very limited circumstances. While copyright applies automatically, it has to be registered with the Copyright Office for you to be able to enforce it. I doubt Lemmy posters register each of their posts with the Copyright Office.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The World Copyright Office then?

Oh wait, three seconds of googling suggests my posts are most likely covered when I post via my home instance in Australia.

"You don't need to register for copyright in Australia. The moment an idea or creative concept is documented on paper or electronically it is automatically protected by copyright in Australia. Copyright protection is free and automatic under the Copyright Act 1968."

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The same applies here in NZ (although my instance is currently residing in AU)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Might we easily make it more clear that the poster or the server owns them outright?

Hypothetically, a corporation federates and wants to monetize my posts. Can they do this? I’m not personally fixated on ownership (which could easily be viewed as my systemic privilege), but the pathway out of this type of thought in general doesn’t seem to be yielding all power to already powerful growth-based corporations. I didn’t create the current systems, but I do acknowledge their existence.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Anywhere where you're a repeat customer is probably selling your data. Any service you repeatedly use could also sell your data. Unfortunately it's just a way of life these days.

Who says that no-one is sucking up all of the Lemmy data right now and selling it to some entity? There is no way of knowing and there is no way to combat it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I feel your frustration. Hang in there though. Perhaps there is a way to combat it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

How would that even fundamentally make sense? Define "own". If you post the comment "lol" does that mean I shouldn't be allowed to post "lol" since you "own" it? How would simply posting something establish ownership? What if you had copied it from a different site?