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AOL, UK latest ISP, Owns Your Content
An anonymous reader writes AOL UK are changing their Conditions of Service (COS) with effect from 1st July. One insidious change involves their Section 4 'Online Conduct and Content.'" ISPs sometimes defend such language as necessary boilerplate necessary to clarify their necessary right to "present content" by doing things like serving web pages. The language in this case (read on below) is a little balder.
Previously this section contained the following paragraph (my emphasis):
Some areas of AOL are generally accessible to other members (we refer to them as "public"), like message boards, chat 'rooms', auditoriums and the AOL Member Directory. By submitting content to a public area, you are representing that you are fully entitled to do so, and that you grant to AOL Inc. the non-exclusive right to copy, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that content in any form, anywhere. You also grant AOL members the right to use such content for personal, non-commercial purposes.
This has been in effect since 1st October '98. This section has been changed to the following:
By submitting content to public areas of AOL (such as message boards and chat rooms) you represent that you have permission to do so. And in doing so, you grant AOL Group Companies a licence to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that content in any form, anywhere, and waive all moral rights (namely, the right to be identified as the author, and the right to integrity, of the content) and undertake that all such moral rights have been waived in respect of the content. You also grant other users the right to use such content for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Some uproar has occoured on message boards on the service (poetry/story writers etc.,) but I'd be interested in how (if at all) this affects those who distribute their own software from an AOL site.
For comparison, the US TOS has this to say:
Once you post content on AOL, you expressly grant AOL the complete right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, etc. the content in any form, anywhere.
Sorry about the lack of links to the COS, but the web link AOL suggests to visit is dead(!)
Previously this section contained the following paragraph (my emphasis):
Some areas of AOL are generally accessible to other members (we refer to them as "public"), like message boards, chat 'rooms', auditoriums and the AOL Member Directory. By submitting content to a public area, you are representing that you are fully entitled to do so, and that you grant to AOL Inc. the non-exclusive right to copy, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that content in any form, anywhere. You also grant AOL members the right to use such content for personal, non-commercial purposes.
This has been in effect since 1st October '98. This section has been changed to the following:
By submitting content to public areas of AOL (such as message boards and chat rooms) you represent that you have permission to do so. And in doing so, you grant AOL Group Companies a licence to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, show in public and create derivative works from that content in any form, anywhere, and waive all moral rights (namely, the right to be identified as the author, and the right to integrity, of the content) and undertake that all such moral rights have been waived in respect of the content. You also grant other users the right to use such content for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Some uproar has occoured on message boards on the service (poetry/story writers etc.,) but I'd be interested in how (if at all) this affects those who distribute their own software from an AOL site.
For comparison, the US TOS has this to say:
Once you post content on AOL, you expressly grant AOL the complete right to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, etc. the content in any form, anywhere.
Sorry about the lack of links to the COS, but the web link AOL suggests to visit is dead(!)
but isn't an author's moral right non-transferable?
So, if they "own" the content now, and have the right to be identified as the author, does that make them liable if the content is illegal or defamatory?
and it's successor (iNBC I think) tried this back in '99 and you see where they are today. Lots of subscibers had web sites for hosting their digital art work. Most of the ones I knew (my self included) removed their sites and left a message on their home page explaining why.
Meddle thou not in the affairs of Dragons, for thou art crunchy and with most anything.
What the terms say is that by posting it you, the end user, are claiming to have certain rights, and that you grant those rights to AOL. If it turns out you did not have those rights, then you are the one in breach of contract.
Nope, no sig
1) You write a novel and put it on your AOL site, maybe with a "donation jar" paypal link. Lots of authors do stuff like that. Maybe it's even a screenplay instead of a novel.
2) After a while, you take it down and close your account, or maybe you don't.
3) Either way, AOL now says its New Line Cinema can make a multi-megabuck movie of your novel or screenplay, without crediting you or paying you? And I'm not talking about the movie having some vague possibly-coincidental commonality with your novel (e.g. both happen to involve a three-eyed alien searching for love as a minor character), I mean they use your whole book word for word.
That's what this agreement supposedly lets them do. Yow.