HACKER Q&A
📣 samstave

Can one copyright an online handle?


?

If so, wouldnt the implications be legal binding to a person... but also, detrimental to any forum?


  👤 Barrera Accepted Answer ✓
Short answer, I doubt it. Titles, domain names, and musical group names are all examples of things that explicitly can not be copyrighted. Here's the source:

https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

You may be thinking of trademark. If your online handle is a trademark, you can exclude others from using it in trade. Linus Torvalds owns the trademark to "Linux" but has licensed it perpetually for free:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mark_Institute


👤 FinnKuhn
Not a lawyer, but if you are thinking about trademarking an online handle and count YouTube names as online handles the answer appears to be yes, as MrBeast has a trademark for "MRBEAST" with the serial number #88307131.

👤 dave4420
Nope. They’re too short.

Can you trademark a handle? Maybe. I’ve never heard of it happening though.


👤 Komodai
Trademark, most likely.

Copyright? Probably not.


👤 night-rider
Maybe not a handle but there is EDNS (Ether Domain Name Service). Not sure if you want that since Ethereum is a ponzicoin