Comments on: Since When did Facebook become gross?

By: Courtney

Courtney — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:11:39 +0000

Yeah… that’s a very good, important thing. If it didn’t have that line, theoretically, they can continue to display your work even if you want it off. Note, that while they COULD, odds are they won’t. Like I said, it’s basically a way for them to try and protect themselves for future technology (for example, cell phones, iTV, p2p, etc). There was one site that would sell your videos for ads and they’d keep all the profits. Forgot the site.

An interesting legal case was some asshole lawyer made a site. In the legalese, he included the following line buried in the middle of a paragraph: “By registering an account, you agree to pay the host five thousand US dollars.” He actually went to court to try and force people to pay it, but the case was thrown out.

It’s interesting. The language can be different on every single video-hosting site is all different, but they talk about the same issues. So you basically know what the topics are and try to find what correlates.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:04:02 +0000

Heh, thanks Courtney. Figured somebody here would know! I admit I don’t really know much about most legal stuff (science, brain, and computer crap is much easier to wrap my head around. )

And yeah, I suppose YouTube would probably have similar wording in their terms; can’t check now still being at work.

I guess the last sentence is the “opt out” you’re talking about?

“If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”

By: Felicia

Felicia — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:55:29 +0000

Cool, that makes me feel better. I know that other video sites have that wording, but now I”m wary of Facebook so I got a little jumpy

By: Courtney

Courtney — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:01:56 +0000

Felicia, don’t worry about it. Any video hosting site will have very similar wording on their legalese. In fact, if any legal page doesn’t have pages upon pages of legal jargon, I’d be very careful with it. I’ve had to talk to a lawyer about this not too long ago. They try to think of any and all cases that someone might sue the site for and fitting it into one document. Most of it will not come into play for 99.99% of the users, but there’s always that one prick that makes it necessary for lawyers. It’s especially true for digital media hosting, since it is still a very new medium, and sites want to cover themselves for the present and future.

The beginning is basically saying that they can host it and have ads on the page that is hosting it. The phrasing at the end is the opt out WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT. If any video site doesn’t have this, be very cautious (there are a few). Also, be sure that there is nothing that mentions the site getting exclusivity rights. Again, most don’t, but some do.

If you want, I can explain it in further details. Email me

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:34:41 +0000

I’m not sure what to suggest. Maybe somebody else knows better about this kind of legal stuff?

It’s a direct link to YouTube, no? Bah, I’m not sure…