Yahoo/Geocities changes TOS in response to boycott

Remember the warning I sent last week? (see below) well apparently there was a massive boycott and lots of people closed down sites and such. Now the boycott is over. Yahoo/Geocities caved and changed their TOS

 See this site for more info
http://www.sitepowerup.com/boycottyahoo/boycottyahoo.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck van der Linden (Volt Computer) Sent: Thursday, July 01, 1999 10:32 AM
To: 'filk at dragoncat.net'
Subject: WARNING: Don't post Filk on GEOCITIES or other YAHOO sites

Unless it's already declared to be in the public domain (I don't think they can usurp that) you'll loose all rights to ANYTHING posted on Yahoo, Geocities, or any other site owned by Yahoo. So be careful not to not post any filk you (or anyone else) writes to their sites unless it's your stuff and you don't care about the rights to the work. Read below for details  

 Yahoo recently acquired Geocities and, according to Yahoo's new TOS
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> < http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> >, Yahoo owns whatever content you
submit to any Yahoo property. Check out the following section from the new TOS: 8. CONTENT SUBMITTED TO YAHOO By submitting Content to any Yahoo property, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted, Yahoo the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You acknowledge that Yahoo does not pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content that is publicly available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by Yahoo or submitted to Yahoo, including without limitation information in Yahoo! Message Boards, Yahoo! Clubs, and in all other parts of the Service.

That means anything you put up on Geocities--images, sounds, text, etc.--is automatically owned by Yahoo, and they can do whatever they like with it (sell it, reproduce it in whole or in part, etc.). Pretty outrageous.

Chuck van der Linden
WMI Lab Mgr.
 <mailto:a-chuckv at microsoft.com> a-chuckv at microsoft.com Tel: (425) 936-9736