[ale] Yahoo TOS [was: is USB stick safer than CD-ROM/DVD]

[Brian Pitts]

James Sumners wrote:
> If the clause you quoted were the only part applying, then you are
> correct. But read the part I am quoting. You are giving Yahoo! royalty
> free license to use your photos for their promotion purposes. Granted,
> it is only for as long as you have the pictures hosted on their
> servers, but you are still giving them the right to do so.
> 
[snip]
> Their TOS are not as benign as you are making them out to be.
[snip]

I still think they are, because the part of the TOS you quote does not 
apply to Flickr. It clearly says that it applies to "Yahoo! Groups", 
which is a completely different service. http://groups.yahoo.com/

I'm pasting the entire TOS again below. It's very clear that part one 
applies only to Yahoo! Groups, part two applies only to a/v content not 
on Yahoo! Groups, and part three only applies to non-a/v content not on 
Yahoo! Groups.

Also, note that all of the above only apply to "publicly accessible 
areas". It's easy to mark photos on Flickr as private.

For the record, I'm not a laywer, not associated with Yahoo, not even a 
paying user of Flickr.

-Brian

#

CONTENT SUBMITTED OR MADE AVAILABLE FOR INCLUSION ON THE SERVICE

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

    1.

       With respect to Content you submit or make available for 
inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to 
use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly 
display such Content on the Service solely for the purposes of providing 
and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to 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 Service and will 
terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the 
Service.
    2.

       With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or 
make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Service 
other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, 
modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the 
Service 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 Service and will terminate at 
the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Service.
    3.

       With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or 
video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible 
areas of the Service other than Yahoo! Groups, the perpetual, 
irrevocable and fully sublicensable license to use, distribute, 
reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and 
publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate 
such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later 
developed.

"Publicly accessible" areas of the Service are those areas of the Yahoo! 
network of properties that are intended by Yahoo! to be available to the 
general public. By way of example, publicly accessible areas of the 
Service would include Yahoo! Message Boards and portions of Yahoo! 
Groups, Photos and Briefcase that are open to both members and visitors. 
However, publicly accessible areas of the Service would not include 
portions of Yahoo! Groups that are limited to members, Yahoo! services 
intended for private communication such as Yahoo! Mail or Yahoo! 
Messenger, or areas off of the Yahoo! network of properties such as 
portions of World Wide Web sites that are accessible via hypertext or 
other links but are not hosted or served by Yahoo!.