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Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

mashable.com

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Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#31

Post by jacquesm »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #26
Alex3917 wrote: post #7

Are people really worried about this? The only reason this is in the TOS is so they have the right to keep running their data mining algorithms even after you delete your account, in case they find a new way to leverage your data. It's not like they're going to start selling a poetry anthology of your stuff or something.

The problem isn't that facebook is gonna use your stuff - it would be too much of a pr shitstorm for them. The problem is that facebook is still bleeding money. Once they go belly-up, all their assets will be sold to the highest bidder, and the world largest collection of stock photos will likely be among the most valuable of them. I have serious problems with "irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, ful…

think of it as a game. If consumers get to sue companies for ridiculous amounts of money based on minor or imagined infractions then companies will in turn respond with ridiculous terms of service. Just on the off-chance that some idiot will sue in case facebook gets acquired and they forgot to wipe a backup tape with your data on it.

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#32

Post by jachee »

olefoo wrote: post #11
Alex3917 wrote: post #7

Are people really worried about this? The only reason this is in the TOS is so they have the right to keep running their data mining algorithms even after you delete your account, in case they find a new way to leverage your data. It's not like they're going to start selling a poetry anthology of your stuff or something.

Then they need to make it explicit that they are retaining the right to store and access your data. It would be an interesting bit of performance art for someone to delete their facebook account and then file a DMCA takedown notice if they could show that their profile pic was still available within facebook.

This is exactly how I'm planning on getting my information taken down. It seems quite hypocritical of them to say in the same Statement (effectively): "All your Content are belong to us" and at the same time, further down the page, "We respect IP rights."

Let's see if they respect my IP rights.

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#33

Post by d0mine »

kragen wrote: post #21
d0mine wrote: post #10

I see no reason to worry more than before. Has anyone read MS Windows EULA? EDIT: * Facebook has millions of users, its TOS allows it to do anything with your data. If you don't accept the TOS you can't use the service. * MS Windows has millions of users, its EULA allows it to do anything with your data. If you don't accept the EULA you can't use the OS.

I am fairly sure that you are just mistaken. For example, Microsoft Windows's EULA does not, as far as I know, grant Microsoft any copyright license in your data. Maybe you can show me where I'm wrong?

For example, Windows can just one day destroy all your data without any consequences. Is it enough?

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#34

Post by gaius »

tokenadult wrote: post #15

What does the "subject only to your privacy settings" phrase in the new ToS http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php do for users? How do you set your privacy settings on Facebook?

You click on the word "settings" on your homepage.

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#35

Post by andreyf »

redrobot5050 wrote: post #30
cellis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once they go belly up... Not likely. More likely is that someone that has deep pockets and lives in Redmond purchases them for something like 2X (8 billion).

Agreed. Keep in mind that Facebook's original V.C. Investments came from the C.I.A.'s "Advanced Technology Research and Development Venture Capitial" Arm. (Say that three times fast.) Governments being governments, they'd likely throw good money after bad. They might also feel, having gotten everyone in one central database, that Facebook is "too big to fail".

Keep in mind that Facebook's original V.C. Investments came from the C.I.A.'s "Advanced Technology Research and Development Venture Capitial" Arm.

Citation, please?

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#36

Post by gaius »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #26
Alex3917 wrote: post #7

Are people really worried about this? The only reason this is in the TOS is so they have the right to keep running their data mining algorithms even after you delete your account, in case they find a new way to leverage your data. It's not like they're going to start selling a poetry anthology of your stuff or something.

The problem isn't that facebook is gonna use your stuff - it would be too much of a pr shitstorm for them. The problem is that facebook is still bleeding money. Once they go belly-up, all their assets will be sold to the highest bidder, and the world largest collection of stock photos will likely be among the most valuable of them. I have serious problems with "irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, ful…

Uhh, dude, have a browse around the Corbis website. Then have a look around Facebook. The idea that Facebook has any value as a library of stock photos is frankly laughable.

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#37

Post by mechanical_fish »

eru wrote: post #25
twopoint718 wrote: post #13

Yuck. I had heard previously about how difficult it is to completely remove yourself from FB, but this getting unreasonable. Also I have an issue with the article: > Someone can still take your photo, slap it on Facebook, and now neither you nor the author of the photo can stop Facebook from using the photo in whichever way they please. I doubt that that's the case. If someone takes something to which I have a copyri…

If I shoot a photo of you, it's not in your copyright (as far as I know).

If you photograph someone, they don't have copyright in the photograph. [1] But if some copyrighted thing appears in the photograph, the holder of that copyright might have legal rights.

Moreover, the subjects of photos can sue you for invasion of privacy -- or, depending on how you use the image, slander. Property owners can sue you for trespassing. And, in some parts of some countries, there is a "right of publicity":

http://www.publaw.com/rightpriv.html

... which prevents you from (e.g.) taking a photo of a well-known person, Photoshopping your product into their hands, and using the result for commercial purposes.

The end result is that professional photographers, videographers, and filmmakers try to get signed release forms from every recognizable person who appears in a shot that is to be used for a commercial purpose. [2] The documented existence of those release forms is a major reason why stock photos cost more than your brother's photographs of random pedestrians on the street.

---

[1] Have I mentioned in this thread that I'm not a lawyer? I'm not a lawyer.

[2] http://www.videomaker.com/article/809/

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#39

Post by tokenadult »

Upon reviewing the Facebook ToS as posted today,

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php

I see it continues to include the phrase "subject only to your privacy settings" as Facebook asserts what it can do with your content. Now I wonder if that is as much of a problem as Facebook asserting it will not respect your privacy settings at all (which would be very worrisome indeed).

I see my reply below asking about this was read for the literal meaning of the too-brief words, rather than for my intended implication. My bad, for not being more clear. What I was trying to introduce to the learned discussion here is the idea that Facebook says, even after its revision to its ToS, that it will respect your privacy settings. So, if you have used the Facebook features to set your privacy setting so that only friends, or only a subset of friends, see most of your submitted content (as I did immediately upon signing up for Facebook), is this ToS change really that much of a worry? If you know how to set your Facebook privacy settings, and like the effect of those settings, the only people who have access to your submitted content are the same people to whom you have already shown it, right?

Re: Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit

#40

Post by ja2ke »

tokenadult wrote: post #3
trickjarrett wrote: post #2

Dupe of another frontpage story.

The other HN submission http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=482772 links to a different Web source, so not exactly a duplicate. Just a hot new story.

Except that the other HN story linked to the source on Consumerist, while this one links to "Mashable" which is an article regurgitating the Consumerist story.
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