Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: copyright law and intellectual property

Do you mean a site like, say, LawGuru? They think so.

Re: copyright law and intellectual property

The terms of use of any given question-and-answer site may, and probably do, cover that point.

In the case of LawGuru, for example, as I understand it both LawGuru and its volunteer attorneys each retain non-exclusive rights to the answers.

Re: copyright law and intellectual property

It depends on whether the contributor has assigned his/her rights or licensed his/her rights. If the contributor wanted to compile his/her own works and sell them, the contributor, as author and original copyright holder, may feel that s/he has a right to still use his/her own works. However, if there was a terms of use agreement (or other agreement) in which the contributor assigned and/or gave exclusive license to the site owner for use of the copyrighted material, then the site owner would be able to challenge the contributor's use as copyright infringement. After that, it would come down to evidence and a court battle to determine who has rights in law or in equity. Interesting question, to be sure.