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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27022
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27022
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

IANAL, but, you own all the rights to work you create. No one else acquires any rights to that work unless you grant it to them through an explicit agreement. By sending them your articles to publish, you grant them permission to do just that: publish them on their site. Unless you agree to grant them something more than that, that is all they have the right to do.

The terms and conditions that you did not read when you signed up for StackExchange included a grant of rights to SE for the stuff you write here. (I don't know exactly what it is, because I did not read it either.) Same goes for Facebook and every other site you have an account on. If you signed up for the site in question and agreed to its terms and conditions then those terms and conditions tell you who owns your work.

If you just emailed them stuff, then what is said in those emails (and whatever the work for hire rules in your jurisdiction say) tells you who owns what.

None of us can know for sure what rights you granted to them. That is in the text of your agreement with them and applicable law. But they cannot just claim rights after the fact just because you allowed them first publication rights. They own what you agreed they would own. You own everything else.

Original score: 5