7.17.2009

Making Money Off of Other People's Stuff

So first PostSecret, and now FMyLife, have published books that are compilations of stuff that people have posted on their websites. (I'm sure there's more, but these are the only two I've ever visited.)

I'm trying to figure out if this should be allowed or not. On the one hand, this is technically other people's property and I'm pretty sure neither of those websites have clear disclaimers on the use of your material or, more importantly, the fact that ownership of your material is being transferred over to them--so shouldn't the posted content technically belong to you (or to whatever IP address you posted from)? On the other hand, you're posting content that is clogging their servers, and quite frankly I think most posters are also doing it for the privilege of just being seen (anonymously)....

Also, anyone want to step up and demand royalties for their published content? :D

2 comments:

m.m.s. said...

To be fair, I had no idea that FMy Life was now doing it.

Once they do texts from last night, I don't know what I'd do. I still think that the best ones are online -- and free!

PD said...

Wait, I'm confused--'texts from last night'?