Facebook Pwns Our Stuff

We've heard this all before, Mark Zuckerberg. In Second Life -- where they actually do it way better. And on many other services. Yeah, we're not as stupid as you think. We "get it" that "for us to see it, and for a buddy to share it, you have to have rights to copies of our content to display". In order for us to see that gigantic bin of user-generated crap sitting on your asset servers, you have to have the right to a copy of it to show to us all. Der! We got that like the first million times we were told this. (And told its correlary, "if you can see it, you can copy it, there's no DRM, go away".)

But let me tell you what is deeply fucked with this picture. Your refusal to limit what is a mere technical necessity with any restrictions whatsoever, when what you have received to share with others isn't yours. I don't get recognition of lawful copyright to original content, I don't get DRM, I don't get protection of IP because *you* need to stream it? But what...then YOU get the rights to it?! And you are in a far more powerful position to use it than me.

And yeah, we get that "all" the services are like this. You, like all literalist tekkie fucktards -- and that's frankly what you have to be called when you make a big content grab like this! -- all hide behind little literalist technical truths like, "There is no system today that enables me to share my email address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with." Uh, we're not talking about private information like an email; we're talking about pictures, photos, videos, artwork, etc. There sure are "systems" that enable people to retain the rights over what they share -- it's called "copyright law".

Sure, you can hide behind all your fellow tekkies with all their social media services or games or worlds. They all demand, with their lawyers' help, that we turn over to you this ridiculous "paid up in perpetuity irrevocable license" -- but of course that's absurd. Your need to *borrow* our content and information to *display* it, in the new digital age, isn't your ownership of the IP. And you need to update your TOS to reflect that modern reality instead of being a medieval dick about it, like you're the fucking Lord of the Manor just because you run a goddamn social service on the Internet. That means you can put in restrictive clauses, like, "for the purposes of display on the Facebook service itself" or even add language about recognition of IP and the agreement to honour DMCA notices.

Yes, they all have TOS like this, which takes away rights. But not Twitter. Twitter is more enlightened. We all have to put content and links up on Twitter as well, yet it recognizes that its rights to this material only extend to a borrowing to display, but that the copyright belongs to the creator, and that DMCA notices will be honoured. From Twitter:

Copyright (What's Yours is Yours)

1. We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Twitter service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. You can remove your profile at any time by deleting your account. This will also remove any text and images you have stored in the system.
2. We encourage users to contribute their creations to the public domain or consider progressive licensing terms.
3. Twitter undertakes to obey all relevant copyright laws. We will review all claims of copyright infringement received and remove content deemed to have been posted or distributed in violation of any such laws. To make a claim, please provide us with the following:
   1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or the person authorized to act on its behalf;
   2. A description of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
   3. A description of the infringing material and information reasonably sufficient to permit Twitter to locate the material;
   4. Your contact information, including your address, telephone number, and email;
   5. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
   6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and, under the pains and penalties of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

What, because FB has pictures and videos you think you get to be different? Even Linden Lab does better! Take a look at how it has been done, with a lot of angst and lawsuits into the mix, over 5 years:

1.2 Linden Lab is a service provider, which means, among other things, that Linden Lab does not control various aspects of the Service.

You acknowledge that Linden Lab is a service provider that may allow people to interact online regarding topics and content chosen by users of the service, and that users can alter the service environment on a real-time basis. Linden Lab generally does not regulate the content of communications between users or users' interactions with the Service. As a result, Linden Lab has very limited control, if any, over the quality, safety, morality, legality, truthfulness or accuracy of various aspects of the Service.

1.3 Content available in the Service may be provided by users of the Service, rather than by Linden Lab. Linden Lab and other parties have rights in their respective content, which you agree to respect.

You acknowledge that: (i) by using the Service you may have access to graphics, sound effects, music, video, audio, computer programs, animation, text and other creative output (collectively, "Content"), and (ii) Content may be provided under license by independent content providers, including contributions from other users of the Service (all such independent content providers, "Content Providers"). Linden Lab does not pre-screen Content.

You acknowledge that Linden Lab and other Content Providers have rights in their respective Content under copyright and other applicable laws and treaty provisions, and that except as described in this Agreement, such rights are not licensed or otherwise transferred by mere use of the Service. You accept full responsibility and liability for your use of any Content in violation of any such rights. You agree that your creation of Content is not in any way based upon any expectation of compensation from Linden Lab.

3.2 You retain copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create in Second Life, to the extent that you have such rights under applicable law. However, you must make certain representations and warranties, and provide certain license rights, forbearances and indemnification, to Linden Lab and to other users of Second Life.

Users of the Service can create Content on Linden Lab's servers in various forms. Linden Lab acknowledges and agrees that, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you will retain any and all applicable copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to any Content you create using the Service, to the extent you have such rights under applicable law.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the service, you automatically grant (and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant) to Linden Lab: (a) a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to (i) use, reproduce and distribute your Content within the Service as permitted by you through your interactions on the Service, and (ii) use and reproduce (and to authorize third parties to use and reproduce) any of your Content in any or all media for marketing and/or promotional purposes in connection with the Service, provided that in the event that your Content appears publicly in material under the control of Linden Lab, and you provide written notice to Linden Lab of your desire to discontinue the distribution of such Content in such material (with sufficient specificity to allow Linden Lab, in its sole discretion, to identify the relevant Content and materials), Linden Lab will make commercially reasonable efforts to cease its distribution of such Content following the receipt of such notice, although Linden Lab cannot provide any assurances regarding materials produced or distributed prior to the receipt of such notice; (b) the perpetual and irrevocable right to delete any or all of your Content from Linden Lab's servers and from the Service, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and for any reason or no reason, without any liability of any kind to you or any other party; and (c) a royalty- free, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to copy, analyze and use any of your Content as Linden Lab may deem necessary or desirable for purposes of debugging, testing and/or providing support services in connection with the Service. Further, you agree to grant to Linden Lab a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable right and license to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights you have in your account information, including any data or other information generated by your account activity, in any media now known or not currently known, in accordance with our privacy policy as set forth below, including the incorporation by reference of terms posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php.

You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service. You further agree that you will not make any claims against Linden Lab or against other users of the Service based on any allegations that any activities by either of the foregoing within the Service infringe your (or anyone else's) patent rights.

You further understand and agree that: (i) you are solely responsible for understanding all copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property or other laws that may apply to your Content hereunder; (ii) you are solely responsible for, and Linden Lab will have no liability in connection with, the legal consequences of any actions or failures to act on your part while using the Service, including without limitation any legal consequences relating to your intellectual property rights; and (iii) Linden Lab's acknowledgement hereunder of your intellectual property rights in your Content does not constitute a legal opinion or legal advice, but is intended solely as an expression of Linden Lab's intention not to require users of the Service to forego certain intellectual property rights with respect to Content they create using the Service, subject to the terms of this Agreement.

3.3 Linden Lab retains ownership of the account and related data, regardless of intellectual property rights you may have in content you create or otherwise own.

You agree that even though you may retain certain copyright or other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create while using the Service, you do not own the account you use to access the Service, nor do you own any data Linden Lab stores on Linden Lab servers (including without limitation any data representing or embodying any or all of your Content). Your intellectual property rights do not confer any rights of access to the Service or any rights to data stored by or on behalf of Linden Lab.

Facebook cannot wriggle out of this. I expect that out of the 100 million plus users, including lots of power gamers, there will emerge lawyers and volunteers to make Facebook change their TOS to be more like Second Life's, if not more like Twitter's. Faceberg's post is hugely lame, as he ducks and dodges and refuses to acknowledge the basic right that Twitter does, in its enlightenment.

Of course, in SL, this is relative. By contrast to the draconian FB and other worlds and games and such, LL seems positively enlightened. And yet, the proof is in the pudding.

I've just heard of yet another content heist -- an entire build copybotted and spirited off to another, unrelated island without permission or payment. And the people, whose aren't in the U.S. and don't speak English as a native language, struggling, struggling, to fill out the right forms and get the right templates working to get the Lindens to do something. In these kinds of cases, time can be of the essence, as to prove your case, you have to be able to get a Linden physically inworld to see what's happening, especially if the content might be hidden or various tricks pulled like hacking and decoupling prims and putting back names that in fact doesn't mean permissions were granted.

I personally have heard nothing from the Lindens or seen any action taken from a DMCA notice filed about 3 weeks ago regarding textures on a part of the build in Ross, a building made by Eva Virgo in a limited edition which was not for sale or copying and which was swiped by Lyden Marikh and gang in that awful Second Living group which also swiped the Lindens' trademark (that has ended now, as some of their other griefing expeditions, but the texture heist remains).

Comments

[footsee]

So strange that all of this was fought out 20 years ago at The Well --
"You Own Your Own Words" -- see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOYOW
and related links. Freedom is a constant struggle.

[Prokofy Neva]

Very interesting bit of history. Reminds me to read that book on the history of the Well, where a lot of the California Ideology about VWs got its start (including from Hamlet nee Linden Au who was a Well user, and of coures Mitch Kapor).

And Steward Brand then turned around after awarding this ownership of words to cover his own ass from libel suits (rightfully so) that people turned it into a copyright thing, which he denounced. But...it's ok for them to have copyright, and for fair use to prevail, if that becomes at issue. Of course, Internet fora rely on the ability for everyone to quote everyone else. It is indeed fair use. Steward Brand was foisting the EFF sectarianism on the discussion.