Paolo Gaspar

I’m slowly going to try to move away from Facebook.  Here is the reason why:

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. 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. 

Translation: “We Own You”.  This excerpt can be found in their Terms of Use agreement and is current as of February 26, 2008.  Let me break down what I had just highlighted up there:

It says: “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant …”
It means: By joining, you already agree to everything that we’re going to say with respect to anything that you upload

It says:   ”… to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose …”
It means:  We don’t need to pay you anything if we want to use the stuff you uploaded to us.  We already got your permission, so eat that.

It says: “… the Company may retain archived copies of your Use Content.” 
It means:  We don’t need to delete it just because you asked us to. 

So there you have it!  I think the transition will be more difficult than I think.  Facebook is so handy as far as staying in touch with people, but such restrictive terms of service are difficult for my to swallow.  Sure, the threat isn’t great that someone is going to use my video or photos, but I’m highly protective of that when it comes to someone I don’t know using them.