Musicians And Artists Beware! Myspace Could Steal Your Work!

[SilentEclipse]

cut and paste
Recent changes to the MySpace.com terms & conditions are likely to impact many users. The new terms are VERY different. If you are a current MySpace user, previous user or a parent, I highly recommend you read their new terms. The new (unreported) terms are significant and grant News Corp (the new owners of MySpace.com), new rights that some may find unreasonable, perhaps surprising. The most concerning issue, is that as a user you are already too late - You've agreed to any changes in your original sign-up, these changes are already in effect.


Current Terms Here Dated May 1st 2006 >>>http://collect.myspace.com/misc/terms.html?z=1

Quote:
By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") on or through the Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com, a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Content from the Services.


Note:If you are a musician who has posted your music at MySpace.com, and you later sign a record deal, your posted recordings may not be protected. If you post risque images as a teen and later move into professional life, these images along with any comments, journals and conversations may still not be protected and sold to a third party. I'd look into those terms carefuly due to these changes back and forth.

*** I WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ THESE TERMS FULLY - IF YOU ARE A MYSPACE USER YOUR RIGHTS MAY HAVE CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY - All of these changes are for a reason, and they effect your rights. Please make sure you understand those terms if you are using this service. **

[sleepytom]

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH bloodyhell - that's that fucked then...

funny i was just thinking about getting a my space account - definitely won't bother now..

[AV3]

Im speechless.... :scared:
Not that I use it, but do they not need to contact everyone when they change terms and conditions?

What else does News Corp own?

[BIOPTIX]

Arse!

I knew Murdoch's involvement would make things turn ugly, even if he is dead, his spirit still lives on!

(Edited to say)

Is he dead or isn't he, google seems to think he's alive, but...I could have sworn...????

[PilotX]

Im speechless.... :scared:
Not that I use it, but do they not need to contact everyone when they change terms and conditions?

What else does News Corp own?

http://www.newscorp.com/operations/

lists their different operations - in different categories across the top.. internet stuff is in other operations..

doesn't surprise me in the least tbh.. I decided not to get a myspace place when I heard murdoch had bought it.. he's got scared by the fact that google floated with a higher stock market value than newscorp.. and with google news and other things he sees them as a media company, not an internet company.. so a direct competitor.. expect newscorp to be buying up internet sites like myspace over the next 5-10years..

[SilentEclipse]

You know what, I've been thinking about this.

What if they needed to put that clause in the t&c's in order to have content on the website at all.

Otherwise there would be no legal standing for them to distribute the content in people profiles..

It could just legalise them against people saying....i uploaded my stufff...but i didnt give you any rights to distribute it on the internet in china, russia etc.


just a thought

[robotfunk]

yes they need a clause like that, but (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) is a bit cheeky :)

[sleepytom]

no they want to steal it...

the chain of events went -
myspace setup as relatively obscure teen site somewhat like geocitys / tripod used to be.
myspace becomes very popular with teenagers and gets a small amount of press
myspace is targeted as a major way of guerrilla marketing stuff to kids - leaders in this game were the arctic monkeys - they even had BBC TV news coverage about their rise to fame via myspace and the fact they had done "no marketing" (yeah right - like the BBC discovered the story themselves! someone was writing press releases cleverly targeted at older people who don't understand the internet and can be fairly easily convinced something like myspace is a phenomenon <dododudodo>)
Myspace becomes a phenomenon! its now getting multiple articles in the broadsheets and everyone is talking about how the arctic monkeys went from obscure school band to #1 hit over night (another lie but who cares at this point?)
Myspace is sold to news corp who are about as evil as it gets when it comes to corporations
News corp see the opportunity to own rights to all the music and stuff posted on myspace - giving them the opportunity to cash in on the next arctic monkeys.

[disassembler]

The moment you take your work OFF your profile then Myspace no longer has any rights to it. It's a clause made so that they don't get sued when someone posts your work on their profile or within someone elses comments.

Say they take a screen cap of a page for marketing and your little logo is in there, then they are protected from being sued.

[disassembler]

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH bloodyhell - that's that fucked then...

funny i was just thinking about getting a my space account - definitely won't bother now..

Since when do you post any art anyway?

[alangeering]

Many online services have similar rules. I remember looking at Yahoo's T&C and they were not too different a while ago.

Note: These are the normal conditions I've seen
0. Most groups limit what you grant them a license to do. The limitation usually takes the form of a purpose i.e. "you grant us a license to use your material for marketing purposes"

1. With most groups When you remove their content they have a responsibility to stop using your content.

2. Most groups don't have any exclusivity clause

3. Most groups can't sell rights on to other organisations. This means the group isn't given the right to sell your music/video to a film company for use in their next work etc.

THIS IS WHERE MySpace is SHOCKING
They want full rights to sublicense!!! (point 3 anomaly). And they do not limit the scope of what they will do with the material (i.e. no "marketing" purpose stated). (point 0 anomaly)
Why would they need this?
Why go beyond all other online services?

I might write to them to ask for clarification and their reasons.

[makemassair]

this is interesting. not surprising. be interesting to see if people do start getting fucked over and what happens. although i have a myspace I have yet to upload anything audio/mixsets/showreels.

having not uploaded this stuff to myspace yet, surely you don't upload high quality ripable stuff? cause the audio player is ok, but not by any means high quality. for audio anything below 192k is gonna sound shit on a club system or whatever so it wouldn't matter that much surely?

failing that upload your stuff with idents/ or "promo" audio in it.

is this what this is about? or is this about if you upload something to myspace in whatever quality you lose your copyright and ownership of it?

i am dumb at the mo. no proper sleep for ages and blurry eyed from edit overload.

[sleepytom]

Since when do you post any art anyway?
LOL next time i put a load of rocks in my washing machine i'll be sure to record it for you and upload it with some silly >>>>clicks and listens>>>>> type links.

in the mean time you can download some clips i made from archive.org or from my website - see the links at the bottom of all my posts.

i won't go so far as to call it art - but its free for the taking...

[akira_k]

Well, does this surprise anyone? This is the reason why I don't post ANY of my stuff in this sort of places. Myspace, purevolume, same that happened with mp3.com . These sort of sites are shit IMO, and I do not trust any of my work to them. That's why I preffer not being able to post all my stuff online at MY server, which has a limited disk space, rather than having all the space I want but putting it in the hands of this sort of fuckheads.

Remove your stuff off MySpace now. Funny how loads of famous artists have myspace profiles. John B should be deleting it all soon :P

[akira_k]

Ok I checked YouTube's Terms of Service. This is what it says:


However, by submitting the User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successor's) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the YouTube Website a non-exclusive license to access your User Submissions through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such User Submissions as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service.


Is it ANY different from what Myspace states? Looks the same to me!

[PilotX]

Is it ANY different from what Myspace states? Looks the same to me!

I am not a lawyer

looking at both of them - the thing that I would point out is that the myspace one does not limit itself to myspace (and it's successors).. so as far as I can see, the youtube licence only allows your work to be licencened in connection with youtube and it's users.. (the exception is only concerned with the promotion of youtube.. so if something big came out of youtube they could promote themselves on the basis of that happening, without needing to pay or make further agreements with the artist) the myspace one does not - so I would think they could sublicence it out to anyone, connected or not.. honestly I don't really know what this means but presumably myspace could licence out a track from some artist to warner bros records who could then release it without paying you more than statutory artistic payments (if these exist.. I presume they do at least in most contries).. or for a fee to a non-murdoch owned company..

i think.
but I also don't particularly like the you tube one.. I don't understand why everything except the last bit (about giving a licence to youtube members to view your work) is needed..

[BIOPTIX]

Isn't all of this partly to do with piracy? Law and legalities always go way over my head, but I imagine sites like these have to protect themselves from getting into trouble with clients who have thier work stolen online and distibuted by third parties. I am comforted by the knowledge that any film work I have uploaded to sites like Youtube and myspace are of such bad quality after compression for the web they would be useless as commercial products or even for sampling. The benefits outweigh the risks for me personally, although I'd be more concerned if I had a band page and was sharing music online.

[alangeering]

Update: Billy Bragg pulls music off myspace... myspace now thinking about rewording agreement

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/08/blly_bragg_myspace/
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=34570397&blogID=122481288&MyToken=6be9856e-7872-4c59-9aab-d75cc2a65170

[robotfunk]

I was just thinking how come artists could upload their tracks to youtube when having to sign a statement they own the copyrights to them (which they don't, having sold them to the record label).

OTOH the contract also states that it is is no longer in effect as soon as you remove the file in question, this would seem it is indeed more against ass protection than trying to make money from derivative works.

[Jukkis]

yep.

I recommend also reading this article:

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2006/06/03/web_2_privacy/1.html

it explains why myspace and other 'profile' service wants to know all details about your music, movie, tv etc. etc. favourites, interests.

Then let's take MySpace, the ultimate social network (and now owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp). Users can share music, thoughts, pictures and words and can meet new people and discover new interests through their online links. If MySpace tells you that your friend likes The Super Arctic Guitar Axe Nirvana Marsupials, well, you might too.

I recommend to read whole article thru.

[PuRu]

cut and paste
Recent changes to the MySpace.com terms & conditions are likely to impact many users. The new terms are VERY different. If you are a current MySpace user, previous user or a parent, I highly recommend you read their new terms. The new (unreported) terms are significant and grant News Corp (the new owners of MySpace.com), new rights that some may find unreasonable, perhaps surprising. The most concerning issue, is that as a user you are already too late - You've agreed to any changes in your original sign-up, these changes are already in effect.


Current Terms Here Dated May 1st 2006 >>>http://collect.myspace.com/misc/terms.html?z=1

Quote:
By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") on or through the Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com, a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Content from the Services.


Note:If you are a musician who has posted your music at MySpace.com, and you later sign a record deal, your posted recordings may not be protected. If you post risque images as a teen and later move into professional life, these images along with any comments, journals and conversations may still not be protected and sold to a third party. I'd look into those terms carefuly due to these changes back and forth.

*** I WOULD ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO READ THESE TERMS FULLY - IF YOU ARE A MYSPACE USER YOUR RIGHTS MAY HAVE CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY - All of these changes are for a reason, and they effect your rights. Please make sure you understand those terms if you are using this service. **

I don't think they can sell anything, if you get it offline they don't have the right to sell it anymore.

[Rovastar]

Just an update on this myspace have changed their T&C.

An interesting article on this licensing in MySpace, YouTube, BBC, etc on the BBC website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5224146.stm

From the article
"Retaining copyright is not enough if you've granted a licence to a large commercial company to exploit your material "in any way that we want". "

[sleepytom]

that's a good article rova - shame it doesn't mention the creative commons which has spent a lot of time and money attempting to come up with progressive licences that allow people to selectively licence content for 3rd party use.

its also a big shame that 99% of people using CC licensed content simply ignore the terms of the licence (i have quite a few video clips i produced and distributed under the share alike licence available to download for some time now and have not seen a single person sharing the derivative works that they have used them in)