• 2 min read
  • The new facebook terms of use are just unbelievable. I first saw the story on Slashdot, but it's all over the web - Facebook owns everything you post, forever. Here's an excerpt from the official Facebook terms of use page:

    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.

    So essentially, "I hereby grant Facebook the right to do anything they'd like with my pictures, comments and other media that I publish, including sublicensing that media, selling it, publishing it, or modifying it without having to compensate me." Nice. I'm not going to use Facebook until this is sorted out.

    Please, join this group to show your concern. In the mean time, I've restricted my privacy settings - I recommend you do this too. Just click the Settings button at the top of your profile and remove all applications, disable Beacon and similar services as well as restrict everything to "Friends Only".