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

[James Sumners]

It's in the preamble. The part that says "you grant Yahoo! the
following..." Also, just look at the flickr.com front page. They use
people's content to promote the website. The big blue and red "flickr"
on a random image is essentially a promotion. The random image is
always from someone's publicly available images. Granted, the images
used all seem to be licensed under the Creative Commons. But the
ambiguous language we have been going back and forth about doesn't
make it clear that they have to use CC images, or if they can use ANY
public image hosted through their service. The ambiguity in itself
makes me adverse to their service.

This is just my take on it. I'm not trying to tell someone "don't use
the service." I was just trying to make sure someone who is
considering it will also consider the terms they would be agreeing to.
Personally, I use my own hosting and Zenphoto to put my images on the
web.

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 9:33 PM, Brian Pitts <brian at polibyte.com> wrote:
>
> James Sumners wrote:
> > I copied the text from "flicker.com > Terms of Service".It's the same
> > language that was in place before the site was acquired by Yahoo!.
>
> I'm looking at the same place. This link goes to
> http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html
>
>
> >
> > Still, if you read the preamble to that section and skip over (a) to
> > read (b), the same language is in place. If you upload a "public"
> > picture to flickr.com, Yahoo! can then modify it however they like and
> > use it to promote the Flickr service.
>
> I'm pasting what we've agreed is the the relevant language below.
>
>
> "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."
>
> I don't see what part of "solely for the purpose for which such Content
> was submitted or made available" can be taken to mean "use it to promote
> the Flickr service." Even if you think it does, keep in mind that
>
> 1) Flickr's privacy policy [0] states that "You can choose to make your
> photos public for anyone to access, restrict access to a limited number
> of other Flickr users, or keep those photos private so only you can
> access them."
>
> 2) The right of publicity, as I understand it, would prevent Yahoo from
> using any pictures of people.
>
> Since this is pretty far off topic and no one else on the list has
> chimed in, this is my last message on the topic.
>
> [0] http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/flickr/details.html
>
> -Brian



-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59