Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

ownership rights of user generated content

I am looking to start a website that essentially would be a directory of local services. As part of the websites content I would like to display a consolidated list of user generated reviews about a local service that we found on other websites.

So when a consumer looks up ACME Cleaning Co on my website they might find reviews listed on my website that were written by the website visitors of these websites as an example: yelp, judysbook, insiderpages

Could yelp, judysbook etc. claim that they own this content and ask that I remove it from my website or are these reviews in the public domain?

I am pretty sure that none of these reviewers are paid and just providing a public service.

Does it make a difference if the above websites pay their reviewers? For example I don�t think yelp pays its user to write review but zagat_dot_com might. Where the former is a consumer putting something in the public domain and the later perhaps giving zagat an ownership claim to that content


Asked on 6/08/09, 9:45 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kristen Browde Browde Law, P.C.

Re: ownership rights of user generated content

You may not take content from another website without consent of the rights holder. Further, you're entirely off base with your statement that someone posting a review is "a consumer putting something in the public domain."

That's simply not the way copyright law works.

If you'd like to arrange a consultation and/or develop a comprehensive plan to acquire and manage the intellectual property rights you'll need for your site, please feel free to get in touch.

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Answered on 6/08/09, 9:50 am


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