facebook addresses issue

Facebook Message

Facebook added a message on people’s profiles this morning letting them know that they will not alter their Terms of Use and rather stick with the previous version they had until a new agreement can be reached.

Originally the Agreement read, in part:

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.

However, if users decided to remove their content from Facebook or delete the account, the site would also lose the right to use the information–as is described here:

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 last paragraph was completely removed by Facebook, which is what caused this huge stir in the online community.

Read more from the NYT here.