Facebook’s terms of service changed over a week ago, without them notifying anyone. (It’s like they think they’re a credit card company or something.) Now, they claim they have all rights in perpetuity to any content on the site (previously, it was simply a basic right to post your content here on the site and use in marketing, the latter of which was bad enough).

Note this clause–especially the words “fully paid” and “right to sublicense”:

You are solely responsible for the User Content that you Post on or through the Facebook Service. 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. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.

This means that they think they have a right to my photos and my blog, which I do not grant. Those of you who understand this kind of copyright more than me, what does it mean to you? I mean, I understand that if I post something there, I give them a non-exclusive right to post it THERE, but the idea that somehow that then allows them to sell my content? Not something I’m going to agree with, and I am of a mind to pull all my content off. I’ve already cancelled my blog feed and deleted the pictures from my portfolio.

I find it disingenuos and dishonest at best, even if they say that there are so many people on here and why would they want my content in practice–in reality, it’s my content, the product of my own work, and I own the copyright. I do not grant license to FB to sell my content without my express written permission.

It’s one thing to post things on the internet and know that they will probably be stolen by unscrupulous people who don’t understand or care that it’s wrong, but it’s another to say that by posting something on Facebook, I then say that it’s Facebook’s property. No, not gonna happen.

Any lawyer-type people out there who understand the ins and outs of this kind of law? I’m unsatisfied by the explanation in the article I linked above on The Consumerist.