YaHoo image grab

If you have your Nature Photo(or other) website with GeoCities, it is

now with YaHoo, and these jokers have an "agreement" that gives them

ALL RIGHTS to everything you show using their service. ALL RIGHTS

here means they can re-sell them, market them or use your photos for

anything they want, all without your permissiona and notwithstanding

your registered copyright. By using their "service" you give them all

rights to your photos.

Check out the "agreement", and if you can't live with it, take the

stuff down. But, you may find(as have some others) that you can't

even access your own webpage without "agreeing" to their conditions

first-thus giving away everything on your site.

Just what we need, right? It is hard enough getting excellent nature

images without our Internet services trying to steal them.

Please read the following:

The term in question gives Yahoo "the royalty-free,

perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, 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."

Heads up everyone.

Sorry if this looks like crossposting, but it's important all affected individuals are made aware.

Aware of what? That all affected individuals actually read things before they agree to what is stated?

This is not theft. These terms have been agreed to upon signing up.

Regards, John

Let's not get carried away (the original Q&A forum is for that, isn't it....).

First, what I think they are trying to do is cover themselves against copyright violations, since you basically state you own the content and they have a right to display it. It need a lawyer to figure that out of course! Of course the intent doesn't matter if they in fact grab other rights too and someday decide to try to use them.

Second they can change the terms of service and not tell you, so maybe you didn't know it when you posted the images. I'm not sure this would stand up in court, but that's what they say. Again, a matter for lawyers.

I have some stuff on a Geocities site and I'll look into this more. Let's just not panic (or hurl insults as appears to be happening in the original Q&A forum!).

The New York Times of 1 July 1999 reported widespread anger over the Yahoo move, in the "Cicuits" section. The Times confirmed Dan's experience, that it is impossible to modify one's own web site (for example, to remove images whose ownership might be compromised) without agreeing to Yahoo's terms.

Regardless of whether Yahoo intends to make use of the images posted on its recently acquired Geocities, the fact that they are taking the rights for themselves means that anyone who has posted there has no recourse even for an unintentional copyright infringement.

Meanwhile, Yahoo imposes a number of restrictions on anyone displaying their "button" in a website. Look <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/yahootogo/legal.html"> here</a>

This is what Yahoo has said in response. <p>

<a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/info/toshelp.html"> http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/info/toshelp.html >

Just another article about this issue:

http://copyright.focus-online.com/yahoogeocities.html