American blogger Amy Gahran, owner of the blog Contentious, has discovered clauses in the newly revised AOL contract for its "free" instant messenger service (AIM) that claims "compilation and derivative rights" to all content and ideas discussed or entered on the service. AOL's right is "irrevocable and in perpetuity". You now also waive the right to privacy in using the service.
As Ms. Gahran intreprets this "...if, say, you use AIM to discuss a new idea for a business, book, deal, etc., AOL is claiming the right to use, publish, or sell your ideas or plans without notifying or compensating you." AOL is owned by Time-Warner. more > http://snipurl.com/df6e http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2005/03/13/why-you-should-stop-using-aol-instant-messenger-aim-right-now -- Neil Schneider pacneil_at_linuxgeek_dot_net http://www.paccomp.com Key fingerprint = 67F0 E493 FCC0 0A8C 769B 8209 32D7 1DB1 8460 C47D Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it - Mark Twain -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
