Web Archive Content Ownership

[Venture]

I acquired an expired domain which used to hold a website. Archive.org shows it used to have a great design and good content. I'd like to re-use the old website instead of creating something new. Will this be considered copyright theft?

I assume it comes down to who is the copyright owner. Is the owner the original creator, archive.org or myself?

Could there be legal recourse from "the owner" if I re-host the content?

 

[evertonian7uk]

yes, because the original author hasnt given you permission to use his stuff,

now, if its anything under some kind of GPU license or something similar, you might be ok for the content covered under it, but images / links / etc... you wont be,

archive do only that, archieve the site, they dont own anything on the site,

then the next problem is if you go to the original owner, and he says no you cant use his stuff, he'll be watching the site to see if you do lol, i know i would.

basically, it all depends on what the site content was / is.

can you share the domain since you own it already? that will help a few exp members give you good advise.

 

[Venture]

Thanks for the reply. I thought that would be the case, just didn't want to believe it

 

[labrocca]

I have recreated content for sites from archive.org. Legally it's a no-no but depending on the site and the previous owner they simply might not care at all. You can check copyscape to see if the content is original too.

Officially you are not copyright owner simply because you own the domain. So proceed with caution if you do intend to use archive.org to recreate the site.

 

[ji]

This isn't a good example, but if I buy your camera that doesn't pass the ownership of photos you have taken with it to me, unless they are still on the camera.