SC - Happy Birthday Dame Alys

[LrdRas@aol.com]

I got passed this on from another list.  I thought anyone with web pages on
these servers should know about this.  Apologies to anyone else.


Yahoo's Lawyers Take Over the Asylum
How much will your free Geocities site actually cost you if they "legally"
steal your content? 
By David "Spam Me and Die" Fiedler 
Sigh. 

They tried to slip one past us all. 

Before I go any further with this, I want you to know that I'm truly sad to
be writing this particular column today. I'm not one of those people who run
around saying "Oh, sure, I know Jerry Yang", but I have met him on a number
of occasions and he's always struck me as a Nice Guy. 

Yesterday, Yahoo! took the first major steps in bringing millions of
GeoCities users into its own network, after buying Geocities in January.
Unfortunately, yesterday was also the day that Yahoo! quietly unveiled some
new terms in its agreement with users of Yahoo! and Geocities
properties...terms that effectively mean you're giving Yahoo! perpetual
rights to any content you submit to them! 

Paragraph 8 is the one we're concerned about here: 

    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) world-wide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any
form, media, or technology now known or later developed.
This is one of the most horrific scenarios one could possibly imagine, but
in a way I'm glad that such a high-profile company like Yahoo! was the first
to try this little scam. Every time I've visited one of the sites that give
you free Web space, I've read the Terms and Conditions carefully, because I
was afraid that someone would try this eventually. This way, we can make
enough of an outcry that perhaps we can shame Yahoo! into withdrawing the
entire concept, as well as set a precedent that will effectively stop anyone
else from doing the same thing. 

We all know that nobody would visit any site on the Web if it wasn't for the
content there. In the past, sites like Geocities would be content to sell
ads on their site -- which contain your content -- and the deal was that
you'd get free Web space. Now apparently they want to sneak your content
into their pockets as well. 

Well, we're not going to let them do that, are we? 

I am indebted to Mark Welch, who runs Web Site Banner Ads Digest among other
things, for pointing this out to his subscribers, of which I am one. Mark is
calling for a boycott of Yahoo! and Geocities until they mend their ways. 

Let's hope they see things the right way and fix this fast. Personally, I
think Yahoo! is a great directory, and I use it all the time. But I'm going
to give them a pass until they come to their senses. 

After all, if Yahoo! didn't have all our content to point to, where would
they be in the first place? 
- -- D. Fiedler 

Evening Update: It's Worse!
I've been doing a bit of research, and it seems our friends at
Yahoo/Geocities are not alone. Other sites that are doing this include
@Home, Tripod, and Suite101. Because of the widespread nature of this
problem, I've set up a personal outside site to act as a clearinghouse for
information at http://dragonflames.com. Please go there for further updates
on the boycott. Thanks! 

David Fiedler is Editor-in-Chief of WebDeveloper.com, and his opinions are
definitely his own. 

Last modified: Tue Jun 29 21:35:26 EDT 1999 

Taken from http://www.webdeveloper.com/refresh/refresh_062999.html
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