We Are Facebook - Resistance Is Futile

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Prepare to be assimilated.

There has been an interesting change to Facebook’s Terms of Use, regarding user-generated content.

Basically, any or all of the content you have ever uploaded onto Facebook can now be used or sublicensed by Facebook in every way imaginable, even if you leave the service.

Here’s an excerpt from the revised Facebook Terms of Use:

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

While that’s certainly a fun read, get this. Here is the part that has been REMOVED from the Facebook Terms of Service:

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.

This is also reinforced by the “Termination” section:

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.

As Mashable points out: “Someone can now take your photo, slap it on Facebook, and neither you nor the author of the photo can stop Facebook from using the photo in whichever way they please. Looking at it globally, millions of people are uploading bits of information on everyone and everything, to a huge online database, and by doing so they’re automatically giving away the rights to use or modify this information to a private corporation. And not only that; they now also waiver the right to ever take it back from it.”

This seriously makes me want to have anyone that wants to take my picture ever again sign some sort of waiver.17

The issue has caught a lot of attention around the blogosphere, so much so that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg penned a rare blog post about the issue yesterday afternoon.

“When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they’ve asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn’t help people share that information. 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.”

I’m really glad he cleared up how “other services like email work.” I was a little confused about that.

Zuckerberg continues, “In reality, we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work.”

Part of me sees little Saddam from South Park saying, “Come on, guy. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.” This firestorm is just getting started.

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This much is certain. Wasn’t there a better way to handle this on Facebook’s part? Why not be proactive about this instead of waiting until someone noticed the changes and then questioned it?