Is this ethical?

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I have an MSN Group that has been dormant for quite some time. I want to start a new message board with PHPBB and it is the same type of web site as the old MSN Group.

Would it be unethical for me to copy all of the old posts from the old MSN group and set them up as posts in my new PHPBB forum?

I can understand that it would be unethical to copy the old member list over to the new message board (or would it?) But how would you feel if you saw one of your posts on a message board that you never signed up for. I'm debating on if I should copy all of the member accounts over but add a ~ symbol in front of their names, and I'll leave the accounts inactive.

Doesn't owning the MSN Group give me the right to transfer all of the history over to the new board?

I want to hash this out with a neutral group of people before I actually do it. I feel OK discussing it here because there were are no able2know members in my MSN Group, and so that nobody asks, no able2know members will be allowed to join my site. Exclamation

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IMO, no it isn't ethical unless you gave people on your MSN site notice when they were posting there that any content they posted became your property. Even if you had done that there would be some people that would complain anyway.

The practical solution would be to send an e-mail to your current MSN group members, tell them you are creating a new site and request permission to transfer posts.

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I agree with fishin'.................................although I would have loved some of the Abuzz posts transferred to A2K! <sigh>

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Knowing some of the members, I would expect complaints. But this is what I've had in the guidelines from day one. Forum name is replaced with ******.

11. Intellectual Property: Any submissions made to ****** become the intellectual property of ******, and may be reproduced, deleted, or modified without compensation or notification. The ****** managers also reserve the right to preserve and protect the content of the ****** website.

So far there's two strikes against doing it. It's not looking good...

I could eMail everyone that posted and ask for permission, but if some say no, that will pretty much cause every thread to have missing posts. There would be no point in copying any posts over at all if parts are missing.

It's something I will have to give some serious thought. I don't want a bunch of angry people after me. I try to do the ethical thing, but I do believe that if a website moves to a new house it has the right to pack up it's belongings and take them with them. This new house just has a new address and a different foundation.

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If you've had that notice on there then you'd be covered from a legal standpoint. It doesn't mean people would like it but your butt would be covered. Wink

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Yes, I think I'd be covered from a legal standpoint. But what is legal, in my opinion isn't always ethical.

I have an idea. Do you think it would be easier for people to swallow of I posted a notice on my site for 30 days to let people know that all data, including membership info and previous posts will be transferred from the old site to the new site, And provide information on how to contact me before a particular date if they have any concerns or for info on how to activate their accounts on the new site.

I wouldn't press this, but I need those old posts to seed the new forum. Newcomers won't post in an empty forum and it wont get much of a ranking in google without them.

We are talking about roughly 500 members and 10,000 posts. Like I said, the site has been dormand for about a year, people don't post there anymore.

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Is this ethical?

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