Did I say anything about copyright? I am talking about physical ownership of property. Accounts, posts, all content is owned by the site, not the person posting it.

It is also subject to protection under the DMCA, as such.

Digital Millenium Copyright Act

To reiterate, the member should consult qualified legal counsel.

There's still no disputing that your original statement which I first quoted is false. Forum property is NOT the property of the person who posted the content. Neither is the account used to post with. It is ALL property of the site. You don't own your account or your posts.

Source: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/fa...al.html#mywork

Let's stop with the "forum property law." It isn't helping the customer.

It is simply a fact, possession being 9/10s of the law in any circumstance.

When you submit data to a site you have no control over it, they do. They physically own it, you do not. They can edit it, delete it, whatever they want to do and you have NO say.

Copying it however, content scraping for example - is where the copyright stuff comes in. It's a nebulous area where protecting content is concerned and it's a case by case basis. But there is NO question, the site owner owns all accounts, all posts, and all content in the database. It's just a fact of online life.

If for example, you decided to sue vB dot org for the rights to your posts, your username, etc how far do you think you would get?

OK guys, that's enough. The OP has enough information now to figure out what he should do. We don't need the two of you to argue here.

Um well the thing is... you guys are arguing about whether or not I own the content, and thats exactly what I'm trying to figure out ; )

So do I or do I not legally own the content. Just as some of you are arguing, the offenders are arguing that I dont have rights to the content because the content, "Belongs to the person who posted it"

Thanks

The content is yours, not the end users.

You only own original content you have posted. You most likely would have needed to hold a formally filed copyright to any other "proprietary information." Because laws differ greatly from state to state and from venue to venue, and because stricter law always takes precedence, you need to consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. My best professional opinion is that you would have a very difficult time making a case for damages according to the legal proof standard. You have no tangible substantive proof of damages, no written contracts.

To whom is the domain registered?

That is incorrect, any content posted on his site is solely the property of the owner.

Unless your using copyrighted material you have copied from another site.