Well, at least according to their TOS on one of their sites. It came up in this thread on The Star Press' forums. I asked who owned material submitted to Gannett for their new 'Get Published!' section. (With a follow-up on why they didn't make that information more prominent when dealing with citizens.) Now, maybe I don't understand the jargon in that phrase, which is quite common if you Google, but "exploit" is such a nasty word, ya know? Says a lot, I think.

Here's the whole relevant piece I want to talk about:

By posting messages, uploading files, or otherwise providing any material for display on the Service, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission with the express consent of the owner of the material. In addition, when you post a message, upload a file, or otherwise provide us with material for display on the Service, you are granting TheStarPress.com a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to:

1. Use, copy, sublicense, adapt, transmit, publicly perform or display any such communication.

2. Sublicense to third parties the unrestricted right to exercise any of the foregoing rights granted with respect to the communication.

The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such communication, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.

Here's what I have on MFP -

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments and stories and photos are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 2006 kpaul media

I'm wondering what other Citizen Journalism sites have in place, I guess.

Also wondering if I should have something more in place? I don't think so. I don't want to 'exploit' content submitted by readers, though.

Thoughts?

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