Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Kansas

Copyrighting a poll

I run a message board which has software features that allow any user to create a poll. One user was accused of using some questions in a poll that another website, which also has a message board, had posed in a weekly poll. I do not own the message board software. It's a free service, and it comes standard with the user polling feature. The question is, are questions used in polls copyrighted? I am currently being spammed by the other website as if I am some sort of criminal and subject to lawsuit over what to me seems such a trivial and temporal matter.


Asked on 2/09/01, 11:15 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Todd Epp Abourezk & Epp Law Offices

Re: Copyrighting a poll

It is possible that poll questions could be copyrightable. However, there are only a limited number of ways to ask some questions, so those questions would not be copyrightable. From a practical point of view, the owners of the questions probably have obtained copyright registrations, which a prerequisite to suing for copyright infringement in federal court. If they have sent you a cease and desist letter with the registrations attached, that would tell me they are serious.

If you would like to discuss further, please call me at 800-289-5999 or email me at [email protected].

Thanks for your question.

Best regards,

Todd D. Epp, Esq.

Admitted in Kansas, South Dakota, and W. District of Mo.

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Answered on 3/21/01, 7:04 pm


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