Legal Question in Technology Law in New Mexico

Re: Internet Forums

The answer is actually not so simple.

It depends on the nature of the comment publicly posted. Common sense will tell you that public posting does not destroy an author's copyright. If it did, no book or magazine or movie or song would ever be published. And, in fact, that is the law. Indeed, it used to be required to publish in order to get a copyright registration, although the law has changed and registration is now independent of publication.

As a general rule, you need permission, and if you don't get it you are taking a legal risk. You might check with the list owner, who may have extracted agreements from posters, as a condition of using the list, that copyright is waived or assigned to the list owner. If so, then you mighteither have a right to use or just need the owner's permission.

If you have more specific needs, see a copyright lawyer and become a paying client.