Facebook TOS protest spreads, Zuckerberg responds

Paul Boutin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:35:33 -0500

Many Facebook members are still angry over Facebook's revision to its terms of service earlier this month, after a weekend blog post at Consumerist detailed the changes in the terms' wording and summarized them as "We can do anything we want with your content forever."

In brief, Facebook's previous terms of service, or TOS, asserted license to reuse anything a member posted or uploaded to the site. But if the member deleted the content -- say, a photo of a friend -- Facebook's license was voided.

The new terms of service removed the latter clause. Consumerist's claim was that any content uploaded by a member, and then deleted, would still be licensed to Facebook permanently. If you upload a photo of a friend, and the friend asks you to take it down, Facebook would still be able to use the photo in promotional materials.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to explain the changes in a blog post on Monday titled "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information." The nut of Zuckerberg's post:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created--one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

As of this writing, a Facebook group titled "People Against the new Terms of Service" had nearly 30,000 members, some of whom explained their fears about the modified license terms:

Let's say that 10 years down the road, I become famous. Let's also say that, despite Mark Zuckerberg's well-intentioned promise, a large multinational corporation buys out Facebook…per these new TOS, my likeness, photographs, etc, could then be used, for all eternity, to hock Sony products in any way they want.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt responded to the group by starting another, titled "Questions for Facebook." At this writing, 119 members including Schnitt have posted questions, concerns, or their interpretations of the legal ramifications of the wording of the terms of service.

One common misassumption seems to be that Facebook is asserting copyright on members' content. The terms only grant Facebook a license to use its members' content. Yet even that worries some members. "We want you to fix the language in the ToS so that it does NOT leave the door open to steal our content," member Shaun Duke wrote. "I hate Myspace, but at least their TOS got it right."

Update: Facebook reverts to old terms, promises to craft new TOS with user input

Facebook TOS protest spreads, Zuckerberg responds

Paul Boutin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:35:33 -0500

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to explain the changes in a blog post on Monday titled "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information." The nut of Zuckerberg's post:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created--one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

As of this writing, a Facebook group titled "People Against the new Terms of Service" had nearly 30,000 members, some of whom explained their fears about the modified license terms:

Let's say that 10 years down the road, I become famous. Let's also say that, despite Mark Zuckerberg's well-intentioned promise, a large multinational corporation buys out Facebook…per these new TOS, my likeness, photographs, etc, could then be used, for all eternity, to hock Sony products in any way they want.

Update: Facebook reverts to old terms, promises to craft new TOS with user input

Facebook TOS protest spreads, Zuckerberg responds

Paul Boutin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:35:33 -0500

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to explain the changes in a blog post on Monday titled "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information." The nut of Zuckerberg's post:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created--one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

As of this writing, a Facebook group titled "People Against the new Terms of Service" had nearly 30,000 members, some of whom explained their fears about the modified license terms:

Let's say that 10 years down the road, I become famous. Let's also say that, despite Mark Zuckerberg's well-intentioned promise, a large multinational corporation buys out Facebook…per these new TOS, my likeness, photographs, etc, could then be used, for all eternity, to hock Sony products in any way they want.

Update: Facebook reverts to old terms, promises to craft new TOS with user input

Facebook TOS protest spreads, Zuckerberg responds

Paul Boutin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:35:33 -0500

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to explain the changes in a blog post on Monday titled "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information." The nut of Zuckerberg's post:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created--one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

As of this writing, a Facebook group titled "People Against the new Terms of Service" had nearly 30,000 members, some of whom explained their fears about the modified license terms:

Let's say that 10 years down the road, I become famous. Let's also say that, despite Mark Zuckerberg's well-intentioned promise, a large multinational corporation buys out Facebook…per these new TOS, my likeness, photographs, etc, could then be used, for all eternity, to hock Sony products in any way they want.

Update: Facebook reverts to old terms, promises to craft new TOS with user input

Facebook TOS protest spreads, Zuckerberg responds

Paul Boutin — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 13:35:33 -0500

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tried to explain the changes in a blog post on Monday titled "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information." The nut of Zuckerberg's post:

When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created--one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

As of this writing, a Facebook group titled "People Against the new Terms of Service" had nearly 30,000 members, some of whom explained their fears about the modified license terms:

Let's say that 10 years down the road, I become famous. Let's also say that, despite Mark Zuckerberg's well-intentioned promise, a large multinational corporation buys out Facebook…per these new TOS, my likeness, photographs, etc, could then be used, for all eternity, to hock Sony products in any way they want.

Update: Facebook reverts to old terms, promises to craft new TOS with user input