Who owns the content on ActiveRain?

"The person who published the content whether it's a blog post, a comment, a picture or a video owns the content (providing they were the owner in the first place).

We see ourselves as a forum and publishing tool for real estate professionals." 

It will interesting to see if that is what MOVE thought they were buying.  

Would you mind providing some specific examples of how we might use the content?  I will comment on each example type.  That might lead to some greater specification

In a sale of the entire platform to, say...Zillow.com 

As a SEO-enhancer for an up and coming online brokerage; a syndicated blog feed for say...Redfin.com

In a revenue sharing agreement as a feed for say...Trulia.com

Brian and Jonathan: It would seem that the author might be given the opportunity to opt in or out of syndication with a particular vendor.

Zillow? Probably.

Redfin? Not unless I could choose the articles:-)

Trulia?: Probably. 

If none of it makes sense, authors can delete their blog articles on Active Rain. (Can you do so on other blogging platforms?) If one wishes to make direct income from blogging activities, there are plenty of places to go.

I would love the opportunity to do targeted syndication and would welcome the opportunity to broaden my audience and client base.

I would love the opportunity to do targeted syndication and would welcome the opportunity to broaden my audience and client base.

Aha!  Good points, Roberta.  However, you give up the write to pick and choose how and which content is distributed by Active Rain unless you specifically delete articles that you don't want to se seen.

Let me give you an example.  If active Rain were to establish a feed with redfin, I'd use this article to show how full-service agents really didn't like to work with discounters (it's all in the comments).

If I were, Bankrate,  trying to show how mortgage originators won't disclose yield Spread, I'd definitely use this article 

Both would be an inaccurate depiction of how you and I do business but it wouldn't matter.  Without control of your content, it can be used to augment business models that are not consistent with our thinking.

and we can't say that the boys at Active Rain would never do that, they already have tried to get into bed with a company most members don't respect.

"I would love the opportunity to do targeted syndication and would welcome the opportunity to broaden my audience and client base."

You can still do that. And the syndicaters can just as easily cut rev share deals with people like you and Brian, as opposed to AR, for less than what AR would want. You would remain in control of your content as well. 

"you give up the write to pick and choose how and which content is distributed by Active Rain"

This is an excellent point and begs the question, "Who will pick and choose?".

There isn't one that spells out user content. That's the problem. 

Whew!

"Aha!  Good points, Roberta.  However, you give up the write to pick and choose how and which content is distributed by Active Rain unless you specifically delete articles that you don't want to se seen."

Brian, that's the plan is we want to let members pick where content gets distributed.  We know full well the reaction if we just decided to syndicate the content which is very valuable to our members somewhere without their permission, we'd have a revolt on our hands.  So why would we do it?

We've always been very sensitive to the relationship between members, our content, and us, and that's not going to change in the future.  And any companies we've have business discussions with in the past and in the future have always had to accept this reality.

That is good to know.  I have seen this asked several times but not seen it answered so clearly. 

So does this mean that we "should" or "shouldn't" add a "copywrite" blurb on the bottom of our posts?  I've been toying with this idea,  but haven't really come up with a reason to do (or not do) so.

Matt.... I think you have said this from day one....  I am sure it's not easy from your side and others that are part of your staff, keeping up with all of this. No matter the differences that we have had in the past, you all have done an excellent job. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention again. 

Jeannie, you can add the copyright blurb to the bottom of you're post if you want, it may help if a spam site tries to rip off the content, but technically you don't need to add it for your content to be copyrighted.

 Update: The complete Terms of Service legally outlining this can now be found at, http://activerain.com/action/default/terms_of_service

Howdy

Thank you for posting the clarification of this.

Have a good one