Question On TOS

BillyP · Sep 11, 2006

This question is for Muhammad!

According to the TOS...

Uploading of files that contain software or other material protected by intellectual property laws (or by rights of privacy of publicity) unless you own or control the rights thereto or have received all necessary consents.

Exactly what does that mean? Can I copy and paste something I found on the net or what? If so, that kind of conflicts with your...

COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICES: All contents of this Web site are: Copyright © 1997-2005 IMC Digital Universe and/or its suppliers, P.O. Box 845, Carlsbad, California, 92018 USA. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website without the prior consent of TractorByNet.com is strictly prohibited.

Last but more important to me is where it says...

By submitting items to TractorByNet.com for inclusion in the website, and its Discussion Forums, the user grants TractorByNet.com a royalty free, irrevocable license under all intellectual property rights (including copyright) to use, copy, distribute, sublicense, display, perform and prepare derivative works based on those items.

Does that mean, for instance, I submit a picture and you decide to use it for profit, that you can?

Muhammad · Sep 11, 2006

BillyP said:
This question is for Muhammad!

Exactly what does that mean? Can I copy and paste something I found on the net or what? If so, that kind of conflicts with your...

It means you can't violate the copyright of somebody else's words (or pictures) by posting them here without permission. In reality, there is a lot of "fair use" of both text and photos here and all over the internet. But to give you a practical example, if you were to scan an article from a magazine and post it here, that would be a violation of the copyright, and not allowed.

BillyP said:
Does that mean, for instance, I submit a picture and you decide to use it for profit, that you can?

Technically, yes. A likely application here is for us to use a photo that somebody attaches to their post on our home page, or in a content section.

Our TOS simply allows us the proper rights to operate our site and not have to think about limitations on how we use content. These terms are typical of any website you visit, or any forum you contribute to.