> > Here's what the Facebook rep told the Industry Standard: > > "We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material > that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with > the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or > post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook > if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend). Furthermore, > it is important to note that this license is made subject to the user's > privacy settings. So any limitations that a user puts on display of the > relevant content (e.g.To specific friends) are respected by Facebook. > Also, the license only allows us to use the info "in connection with the > Facebook Service or the promotion thereof." Users generally expect and > understand this behavior as it has been a common practice for web services > since the advent of webmail. For example, if you send a message to a friend > on a webmail service, that service will not delete that message from your > friend's inbox if you delete your account."
Isn't it just easier on system resources to link users to a primary copy of uploaded content, rather than make multiple copies for each user with whom it is shared? Surely some kind of load-balancing system with built-in redundancies should take care of excessive demand. I have no background on the subject, so I could be talking through my hat here. But I'd like to be educated. The bit that troubles me is that Facebook assumes that any content I generate can be used by other people just because I chose to share it with them. Just because I showed you my pictures doesn't automatically mean you can do whatever you want with it. Or by Facebook themselves, for any reason, promotional or otherwise (The ToS says they can). How does Facebook intend to compensate me if the content I create is used by them (the ToS says I get SFA)? And it reads to me that any content I upload to Facebook is theirs to use in perpetuity, even if I delete it (because those I share it with will keep copies). Also, what of content that is created off-site, but is shared on Facebook via applications/RSS? Do they claim ownership of that too? -- Sumant Srivathsan http://sumants.blogspot.com
