"Property of FOG"

From the Etiquette post:

Your role-plays become property of FOG and belongs not only to yourself, but all the others involved.

I am curious about this. I am okay with my RP writing being under the control of FOG and kept on the site.

However, I am uncomfortable with the word "property." That has legal implications that were not outlined in any kind of Terms of Service that I can remember. Maybe I'm overreacting, but when I see the word "property" my mind starts freaking out.

What if I wanted to use characters or situations from my own RP writing in a separate work of fiction that has nothing to do with FOG? It seems fair to need control over the content so that the community can continue to thrive, but anything beyond that worries me.

Anyways, I'd like to hear your thoughts!

What it means is that you can't take your role-play off-site and claim responsibility for all of the creative work involved in its creation when there were others who participated. It becomes the "property" of FOG insofar as the mulitiple people who worked together to make the story did so here at FOG, and records of it will be kept here at FOG. It belongs to all who participated in it, and no one should take credit for it alone.

That doesn't mean you can't use any of it on another site, start over using the same world, or anything like that. You can. But FOG will be the official record, basically, that shows you exactly who participated in the role-play. Hope that helps.

Thank you! I had a feeling that would be the definition. Perhaps you your words - or words to the same effect - could go in there as a clarification. I will be inviting my friend AEP here soon and he is a legal nerd like me; I'm sure he would appreciate it!

I think it's very important, especially since this site caters in part to people who might have aspirations of becoming professional writers, to define these terms clearly. And it would personally make me feel even more at ease Maybe I will message a mod with the proposal.

Thanks again.

One of the moderators should move this thread to the feedback thread if you're wanting something added to the wording.

Kathryn Lacey wrote:One of the moderators should move this thread to the feedback thread if you're wanting something added to the wording.

Sounds good.

Thank you, Silvone! That's exactly right. I edited that in the Etiquette to include a bit more to help clarify that better.