Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Can I make my own social online community website like myspace or facebook?

Not copying the exact template but the conceptual idea is legal right?

Can I make my own social online community website like myspace or facebook?
That would be a very expensive. You would probably need your own server.
Reply:You can do this virtually cost-free.





There is a lot of open-source software http://www.google.com/search?q=social+ne... out there that will accommodate the program, if you're not up to coding it from scratch.





Which would be a daunting task.





Or there is even a company that you can get it for free called Ning.





http://www.ning.com/
Reply:To be legal, you cannot copy content (HTML, images, etc.) or code (JavaScript, Flash, etc.) from their web-sites... that is true for *any* web-site whether they display a copyright notice or not.





However, it is completely legal to replicate a visual design as long as you do not infringe on other things like trademarks (i.e. company logos and brand names).





If you plan to do this for fun, for non-profit organization, where you are not making any personal financial gain, then I wouldn't worry about it at all.





However, if you do plan to make money (a lot of money), then you should definitely talk to a lawyer who specializes in this sort of thing... cover your ***, or you'll lose your profits!


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