Hey all,

I haven't kept up on threads for a couple of weeks, but a friend on site just asked me if the policy was the same she remembered, and I'm pretty sure it is. Gregory, correct me if I'm wrong, but here's my understanding of this and that ...

I believe the site copyright policy is as it always was before (in its incarnations) -- that technically the site has copyright over everything on the site, because technically the site owner (who is Greg alone at the C.E. site, as I understand it -- although there were some partners involved on the previous site) has to have the legal right to publish here on the internet all the stuff he has here on the internet. So your posts on the forum boards are technically under Greg's copyright. But I remember Greg saying he would never "enforce" his copyright against you if you use or sell your own stuff elsewhere. But if there's something you want to be sure everybody knows is yours, because you might use it in a book or something someday, just write yourself a copyright line at the end of the post. I do that sometimes, just for the clarity.

As far as Metamorphosis, writers for the newsletter retain their copyrights to what they create, but they do give Greg irrevocable online publishing rights -- again, so we can have the piece in the newsletter online for as long as the site and newsletter last. But those aren't exclusive rights. You can still use your stuff wherever else you wish.

Maria

Yep, that's right Maria. The site (which at this point legally is me) holds copyright over all material published here unless specifically copyrighted by the individual author, in which case the author by publishing it here grants the site irrevocable non-exclusive online publication rights. In the case of Metamorphosis articles, copyright by the individual author is explicitly acknowledged.

It may seem counter-intuitive to establish copyright over material intended to be shared freely and as widely as possible, but the intricacies of the copyright system (especially as it's been extended recently by corporate interests) make it important, in order to protect that very intention to keep material freely available. This is similar to the "open source" license for software that is intended to be freely shared ... the copyright (and license in the case of software) is necessary to prevent the possibility of later entanglements or litigation that might restrict its free availability!

In any case, it's always been our policy that the writers of any material here, on forums or otherwise, and whether tagged by explicit copyright notice or not, are always free to do anything they wish with their writings ... except insist that they be removed from the site.

Love,
Greg