

That means that subscribers retain whatever rights they have when they put something on Tumblr. Subscribers retain ownership and/or other applicable rights in Subscriber Content. They, in fact, explicitly say they do not own any of the content you post.Īt line 140 in Section 6 of the ToU, it says this: They are not saying they own any of the content you post.

This isn’t true, and it isn’t true because they aren’t saying they own your copyright (and as we explain below, little-to-no uncopyrighted work is posted to tumblr). Tumblr is now saying that if I am allowed to post something, even if I am not authorized to post it, their Community Guidelines say it’s fine. I am, however, allowed by US copyright law to write Harry Potter fanfic for a number of reasons (transformative works, fair use, laches). In other words, I’m not authorized by JK Rowling or any of her designees to write Harry Potter fanfic they haven’t given me explicit permission. If something is allowed, then that might be the case - or the law might allow you to do it. If something is authorized, then you’ve been given explicit or implicit permission to do it. We hope it’s because Tumblr loves fanworks and realizes their importance on the site and to its users. Why did the Community Guidelines change from “authorized” to “allowed” re posting things copyrighted by other people?

It contains them now and it will continue to do so. To put it simply, the Tumblr ToU contains those licenses.
Basketball tumblr pictures license#
If you do want people to reblog what you’ve posted, they need a license to do so. If you don’t want people to reblog what you’ve posted, don’t post it on tumblr. They make copies by backing up the site on backup servers they distribute copies by allowing others to see what you’ve posted, and then others make copies by reblogging what you’ve posted. You own those rights pretty much as soon as you create those works. You hold all the copyright - and Tumblr needs you to license some of those rights to them so they can show your content to the world. You - yes you - own the copyright to any original work you post on tumblr (photos, poems, songs) also many if not all of the original elements in your fanworks. Tumblr exists so people can reblog and share content! Tumblr could not exist if it didn’t hold those licenses. Tumblr has (always? If not always then at least for the last three years) held a license to host, share, distribute and do certain other things with any content you post. Will tumblr now own all the copyright in everything I post or add to a reblogged post?

Rather than tackle each Ask and email separately, we’ll go through some of the more significant rumors, and invite any follow-up Asks at any time - but we also note that none of this is legal advice, and the copyright laws of your country will vary at least slightly from those in the US. In other words, we’ve been trying to reduce panic (or, alternatively, foster it) for longer than some of you have been alive. We were away all weekend at a Harry Potter thing at Universal, and came back to an Ask box and email in-box filled with questions about the updates to tumblr’s Terms of Use (and staff post about it), and in a project that reminds us of the times we explained changes to the LiveJournal Terms of Use (sometimes not terrible, sometimes head-deskingly awful, which is why so many aren’t there much anymore), as well as those of Yahool, MySpace and yes, AOL when Usenet became accessible via their proprietary system. (And please check the end of this post re psychfacts’ truthfulness.) Don’t let misinterpretations of the proposed updates to Tumblr’s Terms of Use keep you from tumblr-ing.
