Leaving an Opinion: The Legalities

Who’s responsible for what’s written on Technograph? Who owns the opinions left on this site? A couple of good questions, which we answer on this page.

Responsibility for Statements

Yes, we try our best to keep opinions on topic and civil. But any opinion that becomes public remains the responsibility of its author. We moderate opinions to keep them on topic and civil, not to accept responsibility for them.

We at Technograph believe in freedom of speech, the right to say whatever you want and however you want it. But all rights come with corresponding responsibilities. Since we assume responsibility for the words of our articles, it’s reasonable to hold you responsible for your own words as well.

Simply put, by leaving an opinion on Technograph, you agree to shoulder any and all legal liabilities arising from your opinion. Including but not limited to libel and defamation suits.

You also agree that, to assist any investigation regarding statements made on this website, you will not hold us accountable for revealing any non-public information related to your opinion. Again, including but not limited to the IP address, name and URL used to leave an opinion.

Copyright

By leaving an opinion on Technograph, you also agree to grant us joint copyright ownership of your statement. This co-ownership of your opinion’s copyright does not include any lasting legal or financial responsibility between you and this site.

In other words, once you leave an opinion on Technograph, you can do whatever you want with it. It’s yours, after all. At the same time, we also own your opinion; we also get to use it in any way we want, limited only by legal considerations. We don’t owe you anything for using your opinion, and you don’t owe us anything for your use of it as well.

Why do we insist on this? Sometimes, to promote the site or highlight a particularly interesting statement, we may share an opinion with others, post it on other websites, or make it available in other ways. Without a co-ownership agreement in place, some enterprising soul may attempt to sue us for payment over the use of their opinion, a trouble we definitely want to avoid.

On the flip side, if you use your opinion to start your best-selling novel, you wouldn’t want us to sue you for royalties, would you?