WordPress.com Forums » Tag: legal - Recent Posts

philiprose1234 on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

philiprose1234 — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:41:43 +0000

Timethief - thanks for your response. I had hinted heavily towards the site, but eventually I felt it necessary to provide the link, in order for people to quickly and easily see what I was talking about. I also put up a link to a couple of organisations - IWF and CEOP - and directed people to complain. After a few days, an offensive piece was removed from the site. I have left the connections, as the whole site should come down, and only many complaints will achieve something. Thanks for your time.

timethief on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

timethief — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:12:06 +0000

I have felt the necessity to provide a link to a porn site (is that OK?) and a censored picture of a girl involved in a scandal.

It's never necessary to post an active link to such a site. One can provide enough information for others to locate it themselves without linking to it..

macmanx on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

macmanx — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:11:54 +0000

We do not issue warnings for suspensions, but you will be able to appeal your suspension if desired.

philiprose1234 on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

philiprose1234 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:05:31 +0000

Thanks for the answer. I'm not sure where I stand legally, and I hope I am within the WordPress tos. However, should I not be, will I get some sort of warning from WordPress, or is there a risk that my blog will get deleted? Thanks for your attention.

macmanx on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

macmanx — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:44:04 +0000

We do not provide legal consultation, but as long as you remain within the law and our terms of service, you should be fine: http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

philiprose1234 on "Is what I'm doing legal?"

philiprose1234 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:07:13 +0000

My blog is dealing with some borderline legal stuff, and I'm not sure where I stand. For information purposes, I have felt the necessity to provide a link to a porn site (is that OK?) and a censored picture of a girl involved in a scandal. I would like some guidance. Also - if I get reported, will I get a warning to remove any incriminating stuff, or will I just get banned/deleted from WordPress? By the way - the pictures are not too appalling. I may also be releasing information that the police might not want to be shown. I am in a bit of a quandary. Thanks for your help.

raincoaster on "Legal to make money out of creating WordPress blogs/websites?"

raincoaster — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:21:03 +0000

You already have a few tens of thousands of competitors, btw.

timethief on "Legal to make money out of creating WordPress blogs/websites?"

timethief — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:31:01 +0000

P.S. The support documentation is all found at the Support link http://en.support.wordpress.com which is also on the bottom of your Admin page.

timethief on "Legal to make money out of creating WordPress blogs/websites?"

timethief — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:27:26 +0000

Yes you can. It boggles my mind that anyone would hire someone else to follow the step by step tutorial created by Staff and linked to on the bottom of their Admin page here http://learn.wordpress.com to set up a free hosted WordPress.com blog but they do. More to the point, most of them and those they hire never read this entry and comprehend fully what's in it. http://support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/ Please do that now.

More galling still is when someone is hired to set up a free hosted blog which we Volunteers can do in not time flat and then spends days here posting threads and pumping us Volunteers for answers to questions that are already in the tutorial and support documentation and gets paid for doing that. But it happens.

You cannot build or use your own custom theme built from scratch at WordPress.com.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/ftp-access/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/adding-new-themes/
You cannot upload plugins. http://en.support.wordpress.com/plugins/

The only themes we can use are those found here > Appearance > Themes
This is a multiuser blogging platform. All blogs wearing the same theme are using the same underlying template and we cannot access the underlying files and edit templates or themes. http://en.support.wordpress.com/themes/editing-themes/

If you have CSS editing experience the upgrade will allow you to stylize the appearance of themes you find here > Appearance > Themes, but will not allow you to change the functionality, by editing the underlying template. It does not allow you to remove footer links to the theme designer or to WordPress.com. Also note that CSS is theme specific, so you cannot use the CSS stylesheets from other themes with the themes at WordPress.COM. http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/custom-css/

swazer on "Legal to make money out of creating WordPress blogs/websites?"

swazer — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:19:44 +0000

Hi Forum,

I've been thinking of starting a company that is going to make websites for other companies. The main key for the whole concept is that needs to be an easy-to-manage website and the WordPress-platform can't be more perfect for that.
But in the middle of these thoughts I realised that I need to make sure that I can start this company and use WordPress to build the websites and make money out of it, legally.

Technically, I wouldn't charge the customers for the WordPress-platform itself, which I understand would be illegal since it's not my product. It would be for the favor to build the website for them.

So therefore I need to find out if I can legally base my business on using the WordPress-platform. Hope someone can help me!

Best Regards,
Swazer

macmanx on "Legal Questions"

macmanx — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:53:18 +0000

I'm sorry, I cannot advise on Trademark law as I am not an attorney.

If you'd like to hold out on this, you are welcome to as far as I'm concerned, and you can direct them to http://en.wordpress.com/abuse/ to report the Trademark infringement, which will then go to the correct department.

I can't speculate on what will happen beyond that point.

jaml905 on "Legal Questions"

jaml905 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 20:39:33 +0000

Thank you so much!

Really appreciate your help.

timethief on "Legal Questions"

timethief — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:48:07 +0000

I'll tag this thread for Staff assistance. Please subscribe to the thread so you are notified when they respond and please be patient while waiting.

jaml905 on "Legal Questions"

jaml905 — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:42:59 +0000

Hi,

I want to bring this issue to your attention and ask for your advice.

I have an active blog in wordpress, Athlete in Me (athleteinme.wordpress.com) since July 2012. When I was picking a name for my blog, "Athlete in Me" and URL "athleteinme" were available through wordpress. So I proceeded and made my blog.

Yesterday (Feb 18, 2013), I received an email from http://www.AthleteInMe.com saying that I have been infringing their mark - "AthleteInMe.com" and they are demanding me to change my blog name.

So I changed my blog name to "The" Athlete in Me, and changed my URL address to "theathleteinme.wordpress.com".

Here's my reply to him:
--------------
On Feb 18, 2013, at 4:52 PM

Hi Mr. Woodrow,

I already changed my blog to "The Athlete in Me". I understand and I am very sorry for the inconvenience that I may have caused you. I didn't or don't intend to copy or imitate your website. My only intention is to share my life and inspire others of my journey to healthy living.

If there's anything else I can do to resolve this, please let me know. I hope everything will work out from here. :)

Thank you and have a great day.

-----------

And here's what he replied back:

-------------
On Feb 19, 2013, at 10:57 AM, "Woodrow H. \"Woody\" Pollack" <[email redacted]> wrote:

theathleteinme.com also infringes on my client's mark. I did not know you also owned that site. You must also cease using that site, and any other site or mark that is substantially similar to my client's Mark. Please confirm you will do so.

Regards,
-------------------------
And I replied back to him again with this
--------------------------
On Feb 19, 2013, at 1:21 PM

After receiving your 1st email, I changed my blog from "athleteinme.wordpress.com" to the "theathleteinme.wordpress.com".

I do NOT own "athleteinme.com"

-------------------

And here's what he said:
--------------------
You may not use "athleteinme" in any form for your blog. Are you able to discuss on the phone?

---------------------

I got confused when he said that. They only have "AthleteInMe.com" registered. Do I violate their trademark if I use "The Athlete in Me" (theathleteinme.wordpress.com) for my blog name? Do I need to do anything?

I do not think I violate their trademark since my address is "theathleteinme.wordpress.com" and NOT "athleteinme.com" .

Your advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Ja ML
(theathleteinme.wordpress.com)

raincoaster on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

raincoaster — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:25:53 +0000

Yeah, there's heaps of illegal stuff on Blogspot. You're right.

harpersdiary on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

harpersdiary — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:58:51 +0000

I don't think they're going to take my blog down for just wondering if I'm allowed to post certain links on my blog or not... I'm not going to do it if it'll get my blog taken down :/

I guess that's one of the major differences between wordpress and blogspot. There's heaps of blogs on blogger that have illegal stuff on there and I guess wordpress is a whole lot more careful with that sort of stuff. And javascript as well.

How did I get my blog to get special attention from WP.com? o.O

raincoaster on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

raincoaster — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:51:02 +0000

PS you just flagged your blog for special attention by WP.com

raincoaster on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

raincoaster — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 12:50:16 +0000

Try it and see. Blogs like that are taken down every day.

harpersdiary on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

harpersdiary — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 11:36:46 +0000

So all the links that I put onto my website have to be safe links, or otherwise I'd be taken down?
How do they know, do they actually download the file from Mediafire to see if it's copyrighted or not?

raincoaster on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

raincoaster — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 10:24:53 +0000

Yes, IF the copyright allows it. Links to the Pirate Bay, etc, no.

If you uploaded the movie Avatar you would be taken down in seconds. Not kidding. Only upload materials the copyright allows.

harpersdiary on "Games, movies, music on my blog?"

harpersdiary — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 10:17:59 +0000

I was just wondering if I'm allowed to post links to content such as music/movies/games on my blog, via a link to Mediafire?

Like if I uploaded the game Age of Empires 3 or the movie Avatar onto Mediafire and then add the link onto my blog, would that be acceptable?

thepassionatepearl on "Is my Blog Legal?"

thepassionatepearl — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:02:36 +0000

thanks so much :))

timethief on "Is my Blog Legal?"

timethief — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 02:06:07 +0000

Best wishes to you. :)

thepassionatepearl on "Is my Blog Legal?"

thepassionatepearl — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:44:46 +0000

Thanks so much for responding , I never saw your reply until now! I am so relieved!

timethief on "Is my Blog Legal?"

timethief — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:17:22 +0000

That's nonsense. You make those products yourself. You are not retailing goods made by other people. Yes, you can link to your Etsy shop just as you have done in your custom menu.

thepassionatepearl on "Is my Blog Legal?"

thepassionatepearl — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 21:13:59 +0000

Someone told me that I couldn't use my shop link in WordPress. This is the first time I ever hear about that. Can anyone take a look at my Blog and let me know if it's legal? After all the work I put in there I do not want WordPress to remove my Blog.

Thanks so much

Have a great weekend

Jeanne

lawoutlines on "Learn The Law"

lawoutlines — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:41:21 +0000

http://lawoutlines.wordpress.com/

Concise outlines of fourteen major law subjects. Easy to understand. Very informative.

Know your rights!

Especially in a time when governments are trying to limit them as much as possible.

timethief on "Posting legality questions from a novice! :)"

timethief — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:06:31 +0000

(1) Whether or not the author of any original digital work has posted a copyright notice on their site or the work itself is irrelevant. It does not change the fact that they hold the copyright to their works and it cannot be re-published unless or until their permission has been given. When it comes to free image sites always read the Terms of Use and comply with them.

(2) WordPress.com has a Terms of Service that we agree to in order to blog here and it progibits us from posting text or images that violate copyright. When responding to a DMCA complaint it's up to Staff to choose to warn you and ask you to take down such material, to remove it themeselves, or to suspend or even delete the entire blog.

DMCA questions see> Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (PDF – 330KB) http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

WordPress.COM ToS http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

P.S. If you are looking for sources of free images there are 71 listed on my Reaources page. Comply with the Terms of Use in all case if you choose to use them. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/resources/

kistlercommons on "Posting legality questions from a novice! :)"

kistlercommons — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:03:57 +0000

I'm just getting into blogging and think have a daily blog that basically just chronicles my life at college (pretty cliché, I know haha) would be cool. I have two questions.

1) Is posting photos I get from other places legal if I also give the source? Do I specifically need to get permission from the creator first?

2) If a post was found to be improper in terms of DMCA, what would happen? Would I simply get asked to take something down or would I get sued?

This blog is almost entirely just for me, and I won't be having much (if any) traffic, but I wanna make sure I know the deal!

Thanks!

psychmatters on "If you DON'T pay WordPress to remove adverts then do you lose all legal rights?"

psychmatters — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:46:28 +0000

Thanks.