There has been a debate running at Weblog Tools Collection for a little while about the ownership of comments that are made on a blog. I have done a (very) little research into the state of affairs in the UK and this is what I have found.

Note that my research focuses on the UK.

Copyright protection applies, independently of the medium used to record it, to material that is the result of independent intellectual effort, as soon as it is recorded in writing. In the case of literary works the author is the copyright owner until ownership is transferred or expires (generally after 70 years following the death of the author).

You could argue about the extent to which a comment is the result of independent intelectual effort. I found notes that suggest a work might not be considered original if there hadn’t been sufficient skill or labour expended in its creation. Ultimately it would be up to a court to decide.

As important as the existence of copyright is the license to use the content. Even if licensing is never discussed there is a strong argument that an implied license exists where the circumstances suggest that the copyright holder expected the work to be used in the way it was.

This is very likely to apply to comments as the commenter is providing their content for the express purpose of the blogger publishing it. Whether the commenter expects that the comment might be re-used elsewhere on the site is another matter but the principle of fair dealing ( I think this is similar in result to fair use in the US ) allows the work to be used without a license for criticism or review and so this may apply.

The following is taken from the UK Intellectual Property Office Website:

Fair dealing has been interpreted by the courts on a number of occasions by looking at the economic impact on the copyright owner of the use; where the economic impact is not significant, the use may count as fair dealing. So, it is probably within the scope of the above fair dealing exception to make single photocopies of short extracts of a copyright work for certain purposes, that is, non-commercial research or private study, criticism or review, reporting current events, and so on.

I think, for the UK at least, this makes the ownership of comments clear. It is with the commenter. But, in most cases, the commenter should be able to argue implied license to use it within the bounderies of normal comment usage, or Fair Dealing if they want to use it as the subject of a discussion.

I’m not sure how the cross-border nature of blogs affects the laws that apply. I think that since I am publishing this blog from within the UK, the comment is also published within the UK, and so the UK copyright laws can be used, but not to the exclusion of others since it can also be downloaded outside the UK.

Finally, note that I have made an addition to my previously non-existent comment policy. I don’t think it really changes anything but it is useful to notice it.

This morning I released version 0.3 of Fun with in-context comments.

This release adds a new feature: aggregated results. You can now include a short code in the post to display either a list of the results, or a graph, using the Google Charts API. I have included an example of the graph at the bottom of this post, and some example comments to get it going.

[context_count_graph colour="ffcc33" count_individuals="true" direction="h" width="450" height="10" title="Pineapple on Pizza?"]

Have you noticed the slowdown of the WordPress blog scene?

When I started this blog it was as an outlet for my plugin generator. I wasn’t really big into WordPress then and created it because I was looking for the next project to use my time for. Like so many others I found the calling and launched headlong into tutorials, plugins and even a theme.

As I started subscribing to more and more WordPress blogs I began to notice that they all seemed to have started up around about a certain time; within 6 months of mine, more or less. I think that explained the mass of posts.

At the time every blog had a WordPress tip, tutorial, or bit of news every other day. It was overwhelming.

Now thought I’m noticing that the few blogs out there still catering to beginners and doing tutorials are repeating content I have seen at least once, if not more, times on other blogs.

I am finding that I don’t want to post more tutorials. There isn’t much to write them about that hasn’t already been done, and even then most of them should be on the codex really anyway.

So, has everything that needs to be written, except for news and gossip about new features, been done now? Is there anything of WordPress left to blog about?

I have released version 0.2 of Fun with In-Context Comments today. This post gives a quick rundown of the changes.

A lof of the changes have been aimed at reducing the code; however, there are also significant user-facing improvements.

The plugin is now easier to install. All of the template tags are now optional. All the features will be added automatically; however, if you want more control over where they are added there are template tags to control where the filter fields (see below) appear and where the options for the commenter will appear.

Significantly, I have written the code in a way that detects when the tags are being used and turns off the automatic inclusion so there are no settings to change if you want to use the template tags.

I have added filter fields. These use jQuery to hide comments that do not match the selected settings, so if you ask your commenters what version of WordPress they are using then anyone visiting the site can choose to show only comments from users, using version 2.5.x of WordPress.

Finally, I have been working with Ronald of Reader Appreciation Project to make this plugin compatible with WP Ajax Edit Comments, so as of version 2.1 of AEC and version 0.2 of this plugin commenters can now edit their choices.

For a little while I’ve been running a comment policy on this blog that denies the right, or even the value, of following (in contrast to no-follow) comments. Now I have created a plugin to spread the word.

The gist of the comment policy is this. On my blog you know up-front that there is no benefit from Google to be had by commenting. I will not provide a search engine readable link to your blog if you comment on my blog.

I will provide a javascript generated link that real human people can use to check out your blog because that is the reason for including it.

Of the people that voted on the comment policy page most seemed to dislike it. The most common argument not to do this is the same as the argument for deciding to follow comments: Why not reward commenters by giving them a link?

My reasoning is simple. It isn’t a reward, it is a bribe. Participate in my conversation and I will put in a good with Google for you. I don’t feel that anyone should care whether it exists or not.

If what you have to say is of so little importance that you won’t say it because you won’t get a link back then I imagine my readers are better off not having to read it.

If you don’t feel you are getting sufficient value from participating in a conversation alone, then perhaps it isn’t the conversation for you.

At best the link is a free CD from your bank for openining a student account, a triviality that is as persausive as it is valuable and memorable.

Finally, if Google does take notice of these links then I honestly believe the search results suffer as a result.

If you’re still reading then check out the plugin. It is called Comment for Humuns; for the first time I have left out the fun.

Over the weekend I released the plugin that I intend to enter into the Weblog Tools Collection Competition: Fun with In-Context Comments.

Fun with In-Context Comments allows you to add questions to your posts so that commenters can provide additional information to put their comment into context. For example, my plugin pages now ask for details about the version of WordPress and the version of the plugin the commenter is using.

The information the commenter enters is displayed on their comment so that other users can decide whether a comment is relevent to them or not.

I have been using the plugin fairly successfully on this site for about a week now.

There are two more key features that I intend to add before it gets to version 1. The first is that I will allow users to filter the comments according to these answers, so they can see comments that are only relevent to the versions they are using. And the second feature will compiles stats on the answers given, both per-post, and globally, within an optional period of time.

I think this is a pretty simple, but very effective idea, and I hope y’all like it.

Automatic updates create a new problem for plugin authors. Users no longer have to download and install a plugin, and in the process see what has changed, they now just update it and hope it all works out. My question today is, what should plugin authors do if they know the latest update is liable to break things?

One option is to release an intermediate version. A version which contains a warning message that the next version will have major changes and so users shouldn’t update without thinking things throught first.

Another options if to bundle a previous version of the plugin. The they can either upgrade but ask the user if they want to go back, or alternatively explain the changes and then ask the user if they want to proceed with them.

Lastly, they could simply prepare to field the inevitable support queries and hope enough users read the updates page before going ahead.

I am still trying to decide which option to go for with some changes to one of my plugins.

Do you ugrade without checking the changes? I know I tend to. If so which option do you prefer? or is there something I have missed?