Facebook to Users - "All your base are....

[gonzo]

Didn't we just go though this with Google or something? Facebook's TOS has been revised (http://www.thewebissocial.com/2009/02/facebok-all-your-data-are-belong-to-us.html) to state, basically, they own all your content forever and ever and they can do anything they want with it forever and ever. From the TOS:

"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof."
and...

"You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

Ouch. Say it ain't so, Facebook. Where did this sudden need to own everyone's personal information come from? Oh let me guess...a lawyer?

http://www.adrants.com/2009/02/misguided-intent-laywers-social.php

[RawAlex]

Evil, pure evil.

[Paul Markham]

Welcome to 2009 and a recession. I would think someone has come up with a plan to make money. "Every time some idiot breaks the law and has a Facebook entry we can sell it to the news organisations."

As the recession bites more and more companies will be looking to cut costs, advertising in placves that are not bringing in a visible return will be cut. Expect to see more and more people trying to monetise traffic.

Nothing evil about it, just economics,

[miz_wright]

Gee, isn't that the TOS for most dating and networking sites already?

[RawAlex]

Gee, isn't that the TOS for most dating and networking sites already?

yeah, but for the most part people don't upload their entire life to a dating site. I have some friends that use facebook for everything, with literally thousands of pictures, all their personal info, and in at least one case, they use a twitter crossover to tweet everyone as to what they do. All that information is valuable to marketers.

[Toby]

I've never understood the reasoning behind putting all your stuff online for everyone to read.

[miz_wright]

v=qItugh-fFgg

[RawAlex]

Does the term about face mean anything to you? Facebook backs down most massively this morning.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/18/facebook.reversal/index.html

If nothing else, call it a lesson in modern corporate stupidity. I suspect their "profitablity" date just slipped back another couple of years.

[EmporerEJ]

Read the entire story.....change in terms to be revised at a "later time," when they can hide it better.

[RawAlex]

I am sure that they will try to sneak in by the back door what failed to come in the front door. This is the sort of issue though that if it comes up too much more often will almost beg for some (lame brained) senator to propose a new law to limit ownership of images and likenesses on the internets.

I don't think Facebook was expecting to see anything like this sort of reaction.

[miz_wright]

It's interesting because I understand the avowed reasoning ("if you delete your account, we don't want to delete all of your activity on the pages of others"). The wording, however, does leave something to be desired as it is a profound overreach.