# Posting your own copyrighted material.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [September 4, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137 "2004-09-04T19:58:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137/1 "2004-09-04T19:58:47Z")

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The rule about posting copyrighted material is pretty clear and obvious.

But what if you have the copyright? Can you post your own material? I’ve been toying with the idea of both posting and copyrighting some things I’ve written and would like to know the rule about this. From the fine print at the bottom I can see where this might be a problem

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137/2 "2004-09-04T20:24:05Z")

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According to the notice, by posting on the board, you give the Chicago Reader the non-exclusive right to re-use your posting in any way they choose.

If this is a concern for you, it would probably be best to link to anything you write, rather than actually post it on the board.

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**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137/3 "2004-09-04T22:54:06Z")

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Note also that _all_ of your intellectual property is copyrighted the instant you create or transcribe it “in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device.”

Cite:[U.S. Copyright Office](http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html).

Everything you have ever written, provided you can produce proof of being the original author, is protected by U.S. Copyright.  
As **Colibri** pointed out, this notice appears at the bottom of every screen on this website:

> [@Chicago Reader](#):
>
> By posting on this board you grant the Chicago Reader, Inc., and its successors and assigns a nonexclusive irrevocable right to re-use your posting in any manner it or they see fit without notice or compensation to you. No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written consent of the Chicago Reader, Inc., except that message board users retain the right to republish or repost their own work.

So every post on this boards is copyrighted, shared dually by the Chicago Reader and the OP.

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**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-your-own-copyrighted-material/263137/4 "2004-09-05T08:25:10Z")

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As I read that text, you keep the full copyright, as the text does not look like an assignment of copyright. The Chicago Reader ‘only’ gets a license for exploiting the copyrighted text.