On February 4th, Facebook changed its Terms of Use (ToU). You probably didn't notice. I know I didn't. At least, not until last night.
That's when The Consumerist posted a story about it, with the somewhat alarming headline: Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever." Before long "Facebook terms of service" had become meme-of-the-day. Slashdot picked up the news, Twitter was abuzz with angry Tweets, and in general there was much commotion.
And I just don't get it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as outraged as everyone else is, but not for quite the same reason. I think The Consumerist missed the big news here.
First let's look at the relevant chunk of an older version of Facebook's ToU. This is from a May 24, 2007 copy (Facebook doesn't offer a way to directly examine older versions of its ToU) found at archive.org.
By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. 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. [Source]
And now, the latest version, dated February 4th, 2009:
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. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses. [Source]
Now here's what confuses me. What people seem to be grabbing onto is the removal of this portion of the ToU: "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..." Ergo the "Forever." line in the above headline.
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http://www.facebook.com/home.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=49831842869&ref=mffacebook group against the new terms of use
Be careful what you put out there!
There is nothing personal about the‘Personal Computer’
Pay close attention to what you are looking at or putting out on the web, Facebook, and MySpace these days! Noting is sacred. Everything you do can be seen by another person. There is entirely too much information about too many things about you on the computer.
Advertising is overwhelming. I am tired of ‘pop ups’ and other scam messages I didn’t ask for. Being bombarded with offers of crap I don’t need can be very frustrating. Why does my computer have to save everything I do on the hard drive? For whom? I would like to have the choice of saving what I want to save and not what the technogeeks and the government thinks. This device can get you into very serious trouble. It can be confiscated by the authorities and viewed by others who can use this information against you in your job pursuit, a court of law or worse, steal your identity.
Anyone who believes a password protects you is living in a dream world. Any 13 year old kid can get into your computer in a flash, just ask them. Storing all your financial information and personal things on this ‘tattle tailer’ is at best dumb and dangerous. We are no longer insulated from making mistakes and being able to talk our way through them. Now the computer documents our humanistic foibles and we don’t even think about it. There are those who will spend hours on the net only to disown their families and isolate themselves from everyone. I know people who are on the computer all day, and for what reason? They need to get a life.
We spend thousands of dollars to purposely isolate ourselves from our families and even our work associates. Computers in the work place have taken on a new mantra as well. Recent studies showed that almost 80% of employees on the work site computer spend an hour or more a day on personal searches and generating personal E mails. Managers who used to walk around to see the progress being made by their staff are anchored to their desk all day in an effort to write ‘neat’ reports to the higher Directors who also spend their entire day on the computer doing the same thing as well. This is nuts.
We are lost in a sea of bologna and inefficiencies never before experienced. We spend a good portion of our day on the computer and our every keystroke can be monitored. We as humans have become somewhat stupid and naive in our pursuit of happiness. Remember, the computer is always a two way machine. Unfortunately the person on the other end may not be who you’d like them to be. Think about it!
It may be time to re evaluate your priorities and even consider destroying your one eyed tattler. We don’t need all this BS to survive. All we need is a computer that computes and an internet that doesn’t track our every move and usage or capture our personal information. “The faster we go the slower we get”.
The Microsoft Prayer
Bill Gates is my shepherd, I shall not rest. He leadith me down the path to the keyboard,
He restoreith my hard drive. With my flash drive and I pod he comforts me.
Yeah though I walk through the the valley of megabytes, I fear no evil, for Bill is with me. . .
Surely Gates and Dell will follow me for the rest of my life and I’ll be forced to dwell in the House of the geeks forever.
Amen
rights grab by facebook
FB has been grabbing rights for a long timesee http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2008/02/27/facebooks-rights-grab-how-far-does-it-go/
Now it just got worse