Who owns your favorite Group?

[stillgoing]

This occurred to me while reading d's girl's discussion on a non-standard group\thread. Who owns your favorite Group? Does the moderator(s), the creator if they aren't the moderator? Or does the community own it? What is the group if there are no members?

Does the owner\moderator have the right to delete the group if they depart? They may have created the group but is the content, the value of the group to others, theirs to discard?

In the past we've seen very valuable groups, remember Help,  go away because to creator left in a huff. But lots a valuable information went with it. Now not all groups are of value to all members but they must be of some value to its members.

What do you think? Should a creator\moderator be allowed to remove the group if they elect to leave the site?

[P.A.]

The way I understand it if a person leaves all of their activities including groups goes with them automatically.

[Stir Young]

Thats my understanding too.

[stillgoing]

I didn't understand that was the way it worked....should that be changed?

[Jaylee53]

Okay.....IRL when one is employed and leaves either by choice or executive decision one may take what was in the desk drawer but what ideas and creations that were done by that employee are owned by the company....am I wrong on this?
For TBD if someone starts a group and leaves by choice why then cannot TBD/Ning put that established group on temporary hold and advertise for a new moderator especially if that group was active. Does TBD hold no ownership to what is presented here?
Just wondering...

[Bob Stepp]

What she said.......only she said it nicer than I would have......;-D

[Bull]

The way I understand it, Ning recognizes the person who starts a group as the sole owner. There is no way to transfer that ownership, short of deleting and starting all over again. Again I may not have it exactly right, I'm doing it from memory.

[Lowell Brandon]

Unpublished material is automatically copyrighted by the creator, with even fuller protection available by registering with the Library of Congress. My opinion, then, is that individual posters own the rights to their own posts, while the groups as a whole are owned by the moderator(s). ( don't know whether posting on TBD is considered publishing or not.) In some sense, it makes sense that moderators would take the group and the resulting material wiith them when they opt to leave, but it sure leaves a bad taste in the mouth for those who are left behind to wonder what happened.

[Jaylee53]

I agree Lowell..Sensible answer even though I may not like it.
Does that mean I can get back anything I've posted in the past?
There were a few very good group discussions started by people in need...good questions and good responses...It could have been helpful information for newer members to be able to read and join if they wished.

[WS]

It's a lovely idea, but in publishing usually the group or company that publishes a collection of essays (for example) owns the rights to those essays when they publish them. I have to ask permission to republish the articles that I have written and published in those collections . This is pretty standard.

[Suuse]

Not quite true, Pru. As a freelancer/independent contractor, your work for hire will belong to the contractor of said work unless you have an agreement stipulating other ownership.

Titles (as well as single words) cannot be copyrighted. The name of a company cannot, per se, be copyrighted, except that it be registered and/or trademarked.

No, I'm not an intellectual property attorney, nor do I play one on TV. I *am* an intellectual property nerd, and a member of Copyright Society of the USA: http://www.csusa.org/

http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap2.html

§ 201. Ownership of copyright1

(a) Initial Ownership. — Copyright in a work protected under this title vests initially in the author or authors of the work. The authors of a joint work are coowners of copyright in the work.

(b) Works Made for Hire. — In the case of a work made for hire, the employer or other person for whom the work was prepared is considered the author for purposes of this title, and, unless the parties have expressly agreed otherwise in a written instrument signed by them, owns all of the rights comprised in the copyright.

(c) Contributions to Collective Works. — Copyright in each separate contribution to a collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a whole, and vests initially in the author of the contribution. In the absence of an express transfer of the copyright or of any rights under it, the owner of copyright in the collective work is presumed to have acquired only the privilege of reproducing and distributing the contribution as part of that particular collective work, any revision of that collective work, and any later collective work in the same series.

[Suuse]

Ah. Not quite the way I read your initial post:

"This depends entirely on the contract/agreement that you have with your publisher. If I were on salary, my work would be owned by the paper that I work for, but since I am considered 'Free Lance', I own my own rights."

[Suuse]

Kinda thought that's what you meant, but I am loathe to assume....