You "Own" Your ActiveRain Content Without the Benefits of Owning It.

You "Own" Your ActiveRain Content Without the Benefits of Ownership.

Richard Weisser wrote an informative Featured Post about the MLS ownership of Listing content.   His MLS, and perhaps all MLS systems, own the content.  The MLS content is not owned by the Listing Agent who entered the information and submitted the home photos.

That got me wondering who owns ActiveRain content; the creator of the content or ActiveRain?

So, I read the AR Terms of Service which I've copied here.  To paraphrase the legalese, it says:

"Although you retain any ownership rights...once you post your content to the Site, you grant to ActiveRain (i.e., MarketLeader)  a perpetual license to post, use, copy, publish, promote and syndicate your content without acknowledgment or compensation to you."

It sounds to me like the creator "owns" their content in name only.  But all of the customary rights and benefits of ownership are granted to ActiveRain/MarketLeader.  Afterall, AR may publish it anywhere without compensation to, or acknowledgment of, the content creator.   The content creator gets ego-gratification to claim they own it, but that's all.

The content creator loses all control of  their content because they've granted AR permission to publish it wherever they like without acknowledgment or compensation.  

Credit or acknowledgment of the writer does not need to be given.  You may find your post anywhere MarketLeader/ActiveRain chooses to put it without recognizing it's your content.  That doesn't seem right.  Why not give the writer credit for what they wrote? 

The writer "owns" the content in name only, but all the rights and benefits of that ownership have been granted to AR and MarketLeader.  Except perhaps the right to brag and say I "own" that.

Am I wrong?   

Lloyd Binen

Certifed Realty Service

19200 Shubert Drive

Saratoga, CA 95070

Certified Residential Specialist (CRS); Graduate Realtors Institute (GRI)

408-373-4411; e-mail