The WWW rights grab

[walwyn]

Article concerning the sneaky T&C of competions, magazine submissions, and social websites like facebook.
http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/20...-social-media/

The StumbleUpon T&C are atrocious.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/terms.html

[Tannin]

Thanks for posting that, Walwyn. It's a real eye-opener. Most of us (some of us?) had a fair idea that this sort of scumbaggery was around on the web, but seeing it all written up in one place like this makes you realise just how prevalent rights rip-offs have become.

This site and Bird Forum are exceptions: the T&C explicitly say that pictures posted here remain the property of the photographer (although, curiously, BF Opus makes no such statement with regard to the textual content provided by members, for which reason I have never contributed to it).

It is no coincidence that theonly sites I ever post my pictures to are these two: WPF and Bird Forum. Everything else I do on-line remains safely on my own servers, where I retain full rights and full control. This is a good policy for any photographer to follow.

[Tannin]

Originally Posted by walwyn

The StumbleUpon T&C are atrocious.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/terms.html

Indeed. Buried away invisibly in section 3.2 and 3.3 we find the following:

• We do not claim ownership in any "Content"
• but:
• you hereby grant to us an unrestricted, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, perform, display, create derivative works of, and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution method (now known or later developed) throughout the world. Additionally, by posting any Content on the Services and making your Content available to others ("Third Parties") via RSS distribution, you hereby grant to all Third Parties an unrestricted, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to copy, display, and distribute such Content in any and all media (now known or later developed) throughout the world. No compensation will be paid

In what way is this not claiming all the rights of ownership?

[walwyn]

Basically it seems that StumbleUpon are saying that anything uploaded to their system becomes public domain.

The flickr and Yahoo! T&C are OK in that they only assume rights to display etc within the context within which it was uploaded.

#

With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.
#

With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Service solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Service and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.

Flickr are also pretty quick at stomping on other sites that abuse or don't respect copyright.