A Question About Advertising

[inquiringmind]

Hi Everyone

I'm very new to web design, so I feel way out of my depth here among webmasters, but I have a question about advertising and wondered if anyone could kindly help.

I'm designing a website which I hope visitors will participate in. Basically I'm going to list some topics which I hope people will discuss and comment on, such as films, etc.

Now I'm thinking ahead quite some time, but if my traffic was reasonable at some future stage and I wanted to put an advertising bar or such on the site, can I legally do this since most of the text (comments etc) will belong to visitors, and hence I would be making money, albeit probably not very much money, from other people's writings. I'm trying to get my head around this, because some sites have advertising where other people's text is included.

Does anyone know the legal position regarding this, please? Does so much percent of the text have to be one's own? Do you need to add a disclaimer, or seek permission from the individual posters? I'm in the UK, by the way. Many thanks.

[Profitxchange]

If you are putting your ads on the site rather than in the writings I would not expect a problem If you go to Unk Business forums you will see lots of ads, not that I notice them.
You could also perhaps put in your t&c's that the copyright for any material posted on the site is transferred to the website - not sure about the legalities but someone may put us right.

[inquiringmind]

Thanks for the advice, Profitxchange. That's a good idea about putting it in the t&c's.

[Niche]

It's your forum You can put whatever banners or adsense or anything else you want on it.

People understand that the content they post on forums is not covered by any copyright laws.

[InternetHBO]

As it was said, it is your Forum you can put what ads you like on YOUR site. On some sites that have articles you may also see links on keywords throughout the article this is another way you can advertise. Sorry I cant remember the company that does that.

Others have Google AdSense at the bottom of each new thread. You can put a banner on the top or sell space to people who want to advertise by the week or month.

[InternetHBO]

Oh.. one more thing. If you are using other peoples articles you must keep the links in the authors signature so that he can get the the linkback to his website.

[Brian Turner]

Indeed - what you do on your own website is entirely up to you.

[Cyber Money Maker]

Your site, your rules. You may do whatever you want with your users posts/comments. If you hesitate you may add a disclaimer to your website ToS.

[ruswady]

I agree with Cyber Money Maker. what you have to do is to mention it in the ToS of your website.