Who cares? Say smart shit, people will pay attention to you. If Louis Gray comments on my blog and I owned his comments, does that change the fact that it's Louis Gray saying those things? I used to give a damn more about ownership (in the data sense, not the creation sense). We own our words, regardless of who might 'own' our words.... Off topic, I have no clue who this Hank Williams dude is, but I'm likin' him. - Eric Rice

lol - eric you might just be hank williams or a reasonable facsimile ;) - mike "glemak" dunn from Alert Thingy

The concepts of copyright and ownership are not meaningful anymore on the frontier. Anyone who tries to control data will either fail or get isolated (i.e. ignored). - Meryn Stol

So if I were to say "Meryn Stol is a crook", who would you sue for libel? After all, the "concept of ownership" of the comment is meaningless... - Ian Betteridge

Noone would sue for libel, because I can very well protect my reputation at the frontier by myself. The whole legal system is irrelevant. The legal system only applies to the formalities needed for equity stakes and deals with advertisers and such. That's a whole different dimension, sort of like the "back-office" of the web. - Meryn Stol

Noone owns the conversation, also not parts of it. You just contribute to it. It's "public domain". - Meryn Stol

Oh god, please, not the "Internet as wild west frontier" meme. I thought we'd seen the end of that when we pensioned off John Perry Barlow. - Ian Betteridge

it is starting to smell like 'comment ownership' is wholly a trollish string thrown around when people want more controversy. - Nathan Eckenrode

Ian, do you ever read Umair Haque? - Meryn Stol

Who owns the conversation? The people who will make the money from it. Now, ask yourself who they are. Follow the money. - Ian Betteridge

All of Slippy Lane's comments on any service are licensed under the auspices of "do whatever the hell you want with them so long as you don't claim them as yours" - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

"concept of ownership of the comment in meaningless" Uh, no but it may be up for argument. The general case in the USA and many other nations is that by default the creator of an original work owns the copyright. Therefore, if comments are considered an original work then they are owned by their authors unless the site requires an agreement that overrides the default state. - Kevin D. White

As for libel, that will depend heavily on jurisdiction. - Kevin D. White

Ian, they would only *think* they own it. Ownership implies the ability to control, which is lost on the outer edge (just to avoid the word frontier) of the web. - Meryn Stol

DataPortability anyone? - Meryn Stol

And again, Meryn, follow the money. Making money out of something that really belongs to someone else by telling them its of no value is the oldest trick in the book. Money = power = control. - Ian Betteridge

The money earned gives you power and control in other places than the web... That's what I meant by the back-office. At the moment, the web is embedded in a capitalistic system. Or rather, they are intertwined. - Meryn Stol

Just to stir the pot some more; when Disqus says the blogger owns the comments, how can that be refuted? http://disqus.com/help/#faq-5 - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Ian, that doesn't have to do with ownership of content. You said it and it is in a different class. The question is, does Friendfeed or Louis by proxy, own your comment of trashing Meryn ;) - Eric Rice

Bloggers who who are excersing their right of control beyond what their subscribers find acceptable (thus truly excersing control, not merely doing what's right, or justifiable) than those bloggers will have a hard time explaining themselves... It doesn't really matter what's written on paper. It becomes irrelevant. - Meryn Stol

I just assume that my comments are public domain. - Brent Newhall

I think I get this. If (heaven forbid) a comment I make at a blog site should happen to drive extra traffic to a site whose owner gains financially from that traffic, I'm cool with that. If, conversely, I were running a blog which gained me profit from traffic, and someone should make a comment which drives an equivalent traffic AWAY from my (hypothetically popular) blog I would probably be equally cool with it, though one can never be sure. - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane