Intellectual Property Rights Holders Association Blog

Under fire from tens of thousands of users, the social networking site Facebook said early Wednesday it is reverting to its old policy on user information .  The site posted a brief message on users’ home pages that said it was returning to its previous “Terms of Use” policy “while they resolve the issues that people have raised.

Mr. Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, added that the next revision of terms would reflect “a new approach” and would be “a substantial revision from where we are now.” He promised Facebook users “a lot of input in crafting these terms.”

“Our terms aren’t just a document that protect our rights; it’s the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world,” the posting said. “Given its importance, we need to make sure the terms reflect the principles and values of the people using the service.”

“You have my commitment that we’ll do all of these things, but in order to do them right it will take a little bit of time,” he said. “We expect to complete this in the next few weeks.”

Chris Walters reported important change in Facebook’s terms of service (TOS).  Facebook used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore. From the Facebook TOS:

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.

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.

Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.

It seems that Facebook is turning now to the dark side. It’s scary, really scary…

UPDATE: Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, gave more explanation about the new TOS. In resume, they don’t have plan to resell or license your information. It’s more of a technical thing when action happen between 2 users that the content stay for one user when it’s removed by the other user.