JamesG
02-17-2009, 02:36 PM
Facebook Users Up in Arms Over Content Ownership
by Lee Bains, posted Feb 17th 2009 at 2:18PM
A significant, yet stealthy, change to social networking site Facebook's Terms of Service (TOS) agreement has some of the Web site's users up in arms, reports FOXNews.
As do many sites of its ilk, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stipulated in the original TOS that the site was entitled to use patrons' information or images, so long as their profiles remained on the site. Now, however, through the TOS, the site is laying claim to a "perpetual license," meaning that a dissatisfied -- or, for that matter, deceased -- Facebook user would always have a presence on the site, whether desired or not.
Some users -- like blogger Ed Champion -- have refused to continue their involvement with Facebook, while celebrity blogger (and celebrity, himself) Perez Hilton has called for a boycott. Of course, whether or not Champion and Hilton themselves are involved with the Web site, their old wall postings and images would be involved, remaining on the site for perpetuity.
In the new policy's defense, Zuckerberg wrote in his blog that, without this new stipulation, old messages or images would be lost from a current user's profile as soon as a former user resigned from the site. Although he didn't say so, we could imagine that letting such data escape into the stratosphere could not only be a source of irritation for users, but of legal trouble for the site, itself. Just think: If somebody had sent threatening or blackmailing messages via Facebook, only to later delete their profile (and thus evidence of their offense), where would that leave the victim? Probably, to their detriment, without much grounds for their intimidation case, or, to Facebook's detriment, with a lawsuit against the site in hand.
http://www.switched.com/2009/02/17/facebook-owners-up-in-arms-over-content-ownership/
FOX News Story Here - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494064,00.html
by Lee Bains, posted Feb 17th 2009 at 2:18PM
A significant, yet stealthy, change to social networking site Facebook's Terms of Service (TOS) agreement has some of the Web site's users up in arms, reports FOXNews.
As do many sites of its ilk, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stipulated in the original TOS that the site was entitled to use patrons' information or images, so long as their profiles remained on the site. Now, however, through the TOS, the site is laying claim to a "perpetual license," meaning that a dissatisfied -- or, for that matter, deceased -- Facebook user would always have a presence on the site, whether desired or not.
Some users -- like blogger Ed Champion -- have refused to continue their involvement with Facebook, while celebrity blogger (and celebrity, himself) Perez Hilton has called for a boycott. Of course, whether or not Champion and Hilton themselves are involved with the Web site, their old wall postings and images would be involved, remaining on the site for perpetuity.
In the new policy's defense, Zuckerberg wrote in his blog that, without this new stipulation, old messages or images would be lost from a current user's profile as soon as a former user resigned from the site. Although he didn't say so, we could imagine that letting such data escape into the stratosphere could not only be a source of irritation for users, but of legal trouble for the site, itself. Just think: If somebody had sent threatening or blackmailing messages via Facebook, only to later delete their profile (and thus evidence of their offense), where would that leave the victim? Probably, to their detriment, without much grounds for their intimidation case, or, to Facebook's detriment, with a lawsuit against the site in hand.
http://www.switched.com/2009/02/17/facebook-owners-up-in-arms-over-content-ownership/
FOX News Story Here - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,494064,00.html