tarsrife
Forwarding an alert from @SamMaze ---------------------------------------------------------------- Wattpad has been acquired by the company that owns Webtoon. In their Terms of Use, in Article 8, they say: “…All Digital Content and the Service, including intellectual property rights herein and thereto, are the property of the Company or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies and/or third-party licensors.” WRITERS, THIS IS LEGAL THEFT. As of this Sunday I will be removing my works from Wattpad. Be aware of this in your own projects, and weigh the outcome. Here’s a link to Webtoon’s Terms of Use as well: https://www.webtoons.com/en/terms. Protect your art, because no one else will. ------------------------------------------------------------- If you're an author with original works on here, I highly suggest installing the tosdr (terms of service; didn't read) plugin on your browser (if you use the web version) and checking https://tosdr.org/en/service/1362 or https://www.wattpad.com/terms regularly. As of this post, content still belongs to the creator, but be aware that that could change.
autumn_sunfire
@tarsrife gotcha. I’m concerned with the way the information is being passed though. We don’t /know/ that anyone’s intellectual property, whether on Wattpad or Webtoons, is actually endangered. It’s an assumption based on a specific interpretation which is not necessarily correct.
tarsrife
@autumn_sunfire To clarify, I'm not encouraging anything of yet beyond keeping a watch on the TOS. I just wanted to make sure others were aware of the buy-out and possible future side-effects – not saying how likely the TOS are to change
autumn_sunfire
@tarsrife @Ranger_of_the_North So, looked into this some more, and it's honestly paranoia. Definition of intellectual property: "Intellectual property is owned and legally protected by a company from outside use or implementation without consent." This MAY be an inaccurate assessment but what the TOS MOST LIKELY refer to is the trademarks, web design, etc., that make up Webtoons (and in case of a change to their TOS, Wattpad). Under U.S. copyright law, nobody can simply take away your intellectual copyright to your own works. Granted, Webtoons isn't based in the U.S., but their own site states outright that the content you upload is "creator-owned". I'm not yet planning to my works from Wattpad and wouldn't recommend anyone else hastily do so either.
