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My friend and I were having this debate...so where better to find sources on the subject than an internet gaming community! The debate centers around;

"Once you supply an image or artwork on an online forum, do you still own the intellectual property behind said item?"

For example, we are having a discussion about Marines on the forum and someone draws a funny picture about them. This picture is so funny that it starts getting plastered on T-Shirts, lunch boxes and books. Does the original author, provided he can prove original content, have a legitimate claim for copyright infringement? Thanks for any thoughts .

There's three points to consider here.

1. Any original work is automatically the copyright of the creator automatically (or of the company for which he works.)

2. A picture of a Space Marine might be deemed non-original (derivative) as it is based on GW's original designs.

3. The copyright in the work (if it belongs to the creator) can be given up to the web site owner as part of the terms and conditions of posting it to the site.

You may remember that Facebook recently altered their terms to make members grant the copyrights to them, and there was such a backlash that they reversed the policy.

However, it's not unusual for sites to claim copyright of submissions -- I believe sites like the BBC and The Guardian claim copyright of the comments and letters sent in by users.

Supplementary Considerations
Proving and upholding a claim of copyright may not be realistic or feasible, especially once an image has been allowed to spread widely.

I saw that Stelek claimed IP rights to his tactica on his blog. The same day I saw several people post online giving credit to him for his tactics that they had mentioned elsewhere on the Internet. It really cracked me up.

G

I'm going to copyright "thin your paints".

I wonder if I can copyright the act of copyrighting something...

I'm going to copyright the concept of "wonder".

Then I will steal all of the happiness from the world, and the yoshis will have to get it back from my castle.

Then, you leave me with no choice. I shall copyright the act of stealing.

what a strange way this thread is going, and how i wonder what orkeosaurus is on, and where it can be obtained