“What this really is, is a war for control over the internet. The internet is a new world and you want to make sure – the US government wants to make sure – they have control of this most powerful market place of the future,”
…
“The internet belongs to nobody – no man, no corporation, no government – and that’s what these people need to understand. The internet is there for everybody, for society to evolve faster, to share knowledge and to accelerate our development as a race.”

- Kim Dotcom. [source]

Google Picasa

Google now have a combined set of terms that apply to many (all?) of their services, not just Picasa. (Emphasis mine)

“[...]you retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Some Services may offer you ways to access and remove content that has been provided to that Service. Also, in some of our Services, there are terms or settings that narrow the scope of our use of the content submitted in those Services.”

The wording has changed quite a bit since 2009, not being a lawyer I’m probably going to miss most of the subtleties that have bigger implications but it seems to me that the biggest change is those people/organisations that Google works with now have the rights over your content that Google do. In 2009 it seemed that Google only had the right to make your content available to those third parties, not to confer rights to them. But maybe they did. Whether this has changed substantially or not, it’s not giving you any meaningful control over your own content.

Facebook

[...]you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

Well the wording here has changed to make it appear that you have the ability to revoke their rights to your content when you delete it from Facebook. This has the caveat “unless your content has been shared with others”, since the main purpose of Facebook is sharing content with us, that’s pretty meaningless, especially relating to photos.

Flickr

Those parts of the Terms and Conditions I reviewed in 2009 remain essentially unchanged.

Windows Live Spaces

[...]You have initial control over who may access your content. If you share content in public areas of the services or in shared areas available to others you’ve chosen, you expressly agree that anyone you have shared content with may, for free, use, reproduce, distribute, display, transmit, save and communicate the content solely in connection with the services and other Microsoft, or its licensees’, products and services. If you don’t want others to have that ability, don’t use the services to share your content.

This seems to be slightly more restricted than in 2009 in that it has the bit that says “solely in connection with the services and other Microsoft, or its licensees’, products and services” which I don’t think existed in 2009. But still, you’re just giving your content away here, there are no restrictions that give you any control at all.

In Summary

It looks to my untrained eye that most of these companies have changed their terms and conditions over the past few years to mainly make them sound more appealing, perhaps in response to user backlash over privacy concerns or perhaps because net users are getting smarter about this kind of thing. And even though the terms have changed, sometimes significantly, your control over your own content hasn’t really got any better. Except for Flickr, the content you create and upload to these services seems to be essentially out of your control.

There are now some useful sites to help you track changes to these terms, like TOSBack

“Windows 7 has malicious features just like Windows Vista. These include features to restrict users (Digital Restrictions Management), a back door for imposing software changes, and perhaps also the spyware features discovered in previous versions. If you don’t want to be abused, defenestrate your computer.”

Richard Stallman (RMS), President of the Free Software Foundation (Join) in an Interview with Neowin.net.

Ingredients

• 2 Heads of Broccoli
• 1 Onion
• 1 Potato
• 1 Litre Vegetable Stock
• 100g Blue Cheese (e.g. Stilton)
• 1 tsp Olive Oil

Method
Dice the onion, peel and slice the potato and separate the broccoli into flourettes. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion until it softens, then add the stock and the potato and simmer until the potato softens. Once the potato is soft add the broccoli, stir well and cook for a further 3 or 4 minutes, then turn off the heat and add all but a teaspoon worth of the cheese to the pan. Now blend the mixture or liquidise it in a food processor until all the chunks have gone. To serve crumble the cheese you saved and sprinkle it on top.

Ingredients

• 1 Head of Cauliflower
• 1 Potato
• 1 Onion
• 500ml Vegetable Stock
• 350ml Milk
• 100g Mature Cheddar Cheese
• 1tsp Olive Oil
• Pinch Celery salt

Method
Dice the onion, peel and slice the potato and separate the cauliflower into flourettes. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion until it softens, then add the stock the milk, the potato and the cauliflower and simmer until the veg softens. Turn on the heat and grate two thirds of the cheese into the mixture and stir. Now blend or liquidise the mixture until a smooth creamy consistency is acheived. Dice the remaining cheese and add to the soup before serving.

Photo by bichromephoto cc-by-nc-sa via flickr

Ingredients

• 1 Leek
• 1 medium sized onion
• About 2 average sized potatoes sliced
• 1 rasher of bacon
• 3/4 pint of chicken stock
• salt & pepper
• pinch of nutmeg
• 200ml or so of cream (or milk)
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

Method
First place the bacon under a hot grill, while that is cooking slice the white and light green parts of the leek, finely chop the onion and roughly slice the potatoes.

Turn your stove to high and heat the oil in a pan and then add the chopped onion and sliced leek, keep stirring from time to time so that they don’t stick. Once the onion and leek begins to brown add the potato and the chicken stock. By this time your bacon should be nice and crispy, cut the bacon into 1cm squares and add to the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil turn the heat down and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potato is nice and soft.

Liquidise or blend the soup mixture until at the consistency you prefer, add the cream (or milk), a pinch of nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a sprinkle of nutmeg or place in the freezer for use later.

Google Picasa

The google picasa terms of service, in fact, it seems most google services, including gmail have the following text: (Emphasis is mine)

“[...]11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.”

“11.2 You agree that this licence includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organisations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services[...]“

Facebook (no link coz it’s shit)

Some text from the facebook terms of use: (Emphasis is mine)

“[...]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[...]“

Flickr

The flickr (pro) Terms of Service include the Yahoo! Terms of Service by reference. The Yahoo terms have the following text: (Emphasis is mine)

“[...]Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Yahoo! Services. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services, you grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:[...]“

“[...]With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Yahoo! Services and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Yahoo! Services.[...]“

Windows Live Spaces

And this text is from the Microsoft Service Agreement from the legal section of windows live spaces: (Emphasis is mine)

“[...]You may be able to submit materials for use in connection with the service. The service includes publicly accessible areas (“public areas of the service”) and areas to which you can control access by others (“shared and private areas of the service”). You understand that Microsoft does not control or endorse the content that you and others post or provide on the service. Except for material that we license to you, we do not claim ownership of the materials you post or provide on the service. However, with respect to content you post or provide you grant to those members of the public to whom you have granted access (for content posted on shared and private areas of the service) or to the public (for content posted on public areas of the service) free, unlimited, worldwide, nonexclusive and perpetual permission to:

* use, modify, copy, distribute and display the content in connection with the service and other Microsoft products and services;
* publish your name in connection with the content; and
* grant these rights to others.

You understand that Microsoft may need to make copies, change the format, transcode or otherwise process content posted on the service, including on shared and private areas of the service, in order to:

* store and retrieve the content;
* make the content available to you and those members of the public to whom you have granted access;
* conform to connecting networks’ technical requirements; or
* conform to the limitations and terms of the service.[...]”

If I’m reading that Microsoft document correctly, that means you’re effectively giving your content away! Anybody you share it with can not only re-publish it but they can also sub license it!

In Summary
It appears from that rather crude comparison that Flickr are the only one of the four that restrict their usage of your photographs to the purpose you uploaded them for (i.e. as an online photo album) and only flickr seem happy to end their usage rights after you cancel your account. I’m going to laugh when all those people with drunken photos on facebook realise the photos are actually permanent, you know like tattoos, except a shade more visible.

Update: How to delete your facebook account.

“It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism – that we live in fear and under a police state[...]“

Dame Stella Rimington, former Director General of MI5

Found in a BBC News report Ministers ‘using fear of terror’