January 18, 2011
YA won't remove my intellectual property from two resolved questions, I intended to delete after 3 – 4 days?
By Planet Wealth
I posted two questions earlier in the week, with some details (drafts – "Part III Works") in the "Add Details" section, to help give any respondents a (better) thought of what I wanted to know, help with.
Where upon day 3 of both questions (had they have been still open) I would have deleted the questions to remove them along with the added details including my drafts.
Both questions went into the voting stage sooner than I expected, and I have since learned I cannot remove both questions from Yahoo’s Knowledege thing.
I complained to Yahoo (cc-advoc@yahoo-inc.com) about this in an e-mail, only to receive a answer:
We appreciate your inquiry. Unfortunately, you cannot edit or delete
your question once it has been submitted.
Now under copyright law, I did not need to declare or assert copyright when I included those drafts to appear along with both questions temporarily, as I am already automatically covered by copyright, having been the person who made both drafts in the first place, and such is recognised by the Australian Copyright Law, The Berne Convention, and the U.S.- Australia Free Trade Agreement.
I had full intention of deleting both those questions and additional detail, and I assumed I still had time when they were open to remove them and their content.
Yahoo Answers by refusing to remove my work/IP is in breach and violation.
I want to know can I sue?
I wouldn’t say I signed anything.
Certainly not that.
The Bloody bastards > Y.
(Free democratic speech)
I hope someone hacks them.
Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.
If you have obtained a subpoena or a court order for the release of
information regarding a Yahoo! member or visitor, please direct it to:
Custodian of Records
Yahoo! Inc.
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers.
Topics: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
6 Responses to “YA won't remove my intellectual property from two resolved questions, I intended to delete after 3 – 4 days?”
Comments
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January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
You clearly can’t sue Yahoo on this matter, Yahoo is not using your copyrighted material – by posting it in a question YOU used the material, not them.
You accepted the Yahoo Terms and Conditions, not being able to delete or change your question after a certain point is part of that.
As someone else said, if another party uses your copyrighted material – having taken it from your question – then you might be able to go after them.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Open to remove them and their content?! Right on!
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
You’ve already signed their terms and conditions, which includes this. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do in terms of that question being posted here.
But, if a 3rd party were to extract that post and use it you would be able to sue that 3rd party.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
If you don’t want people on the Internet doing things you don’t approve of with material that you wrote, then don’t post it on the Internet. As others have pointed out, even if Yahoo deletes your question, you have no way of knowing who else took a copy of it while it was visible.
Yes, you hold the copyright in what you wrote, and that allows you to tell other people what they can and can’t do with it. But, there is nearly certainly something in Yahoo’s T&Cs that allows them to keep a copy of what you posted, indefinitely. You agreed to the T&Cs when you signed up for Y!A, and you continue to agree to them by posting questions.
Of course you can sue, but what would it get you? Is your work really that valuable? Lawyers are expensive. Even if you represent yourself (very unwise), you still have to pay administrative fees. If you lose, you may be stuck with the other side’s legal costs (not sure if that can happen in Australia). If you win, you get your question deleted, and probably still have to pay your legal costs. It’s doubtful that the judge would award you any hurts, as it would be hard to show that you’d suffered any financial loss.
In small, chalk this one up to experience and walk away from it.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
You want editorial advice on writing for free. Now you complain of the consequences. Now you want legal advice for free? I suggest you see a professional. You get what you pay for.
January 18th, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Well, it is part of the Terms and Conditions of service, which you agreed to when you joined. Also, no one questioned you to post your work on here. You did so voluntarily and as such, must now abide by the conditions. You could try to sue if you like, but I doubt that it would get you anywhere.