Tuesday, December 18, 2012

You Don't Own Anything Anymore

Don't freak out about the Instagram terms of service. Freak out about ALL terms of service. On the internet, we're all sellouts.



This piece was originally published in April of this year, in response to a change in the Google Drive terms of service. Instagram's TOS, which many were then holding up as as a model for others, has since been changed, and people are upset — again.


Here's the thing: It was never as good as it seemed.



Have you ever actually read the terms of service on a site like Google or Facebook? Better question. Have you read a lot of them? If you have, you'll recognize a pattern: after a ream or two worth of throat clearing, most terms of service get around to the bad part:



When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give us a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works, communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.





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