While Facebook has it’s issues, Google+ may not be the social network you want to try. Their Terms of Service is pretty scary:
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.
11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.
Related articles
- Google+: And You Thought Facebook Is a Privacy Nightmare (fool.com)
- Google Plus – Read the Fine Print BEFORE You Sign Up (photofocus.com)
- Google user licenses: Clarification would be nice, but no need to panic (zdnet.com)
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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[...] Thanks to Joel, my suspicion goes justified [...]
Hmm, I’m not really having a problem with this. Basically, it says you, as author, can’t go back and say to Google “Hey, you’ve been posting my stuff just as I agreed, but now I expect some payment for the 3000 views it has had.” You own your copyright, but Google has the right to make it available to nayone who asks. It is the same deal you have with wordpress. I’ve had about 100,000 views of my blog since inception, and wouldn’t it have been nice to have had even a dime for each of those? But generating a revenue stream is my business, not the blog platform’s. If I’m wrong in this, someone please explain it to me. Of course, I keep my blog advertising free for a number of reasons, so maybe it isn’t a real issue for me.
True, but they also have the right, irrevocable, to change it.
Remember when Facebook tried to own your photos? http://mashable.com/2009/02/16/facebook-tos-privacy/
its put me off google+ totally
[...] It has been one week since I accessed Google’s newest social media venture. As expected there have been some glitches with the launch of Google +. This doesn’t bother me. Can you imagine if all eyes had been on Facebook in the early days?! The one thing many of us WordPress bloggers want to see is integration so that our blog posts go straight into our feed. I am sure that will come soon enough. Overall I am satisfied with it. It is a breath of fresh air from the traffic jam that is Facebook even if it has some of the same security/terms-of-service issues. [...]
Here’s a more thorough analysis by an IP lawyer. A lot less hand-wringing, and a lot less FUD. Good read.
http://kherianlaw.com/2011/07/21/google-terms-of-service/