Howdy, folks,
We've had several discussions over the years about the terms of use of
various web sites and services. Well, I've been planning to put
together a very short run of a small photo book from my recent trip to
Bulgaria. I only plan a run of maybe 30 because they're for gifts to
people over there and family here. So I've been looking at self
publishing web sites like Lulu and Blurb and such.
A friend of mine recently got involved with a multi-level marketing
company called Creative Memories. Their focus is more on "electronic
scrapbooking", but they have a service that would be appropriate for
what I'm doing. It's a little pricey, but I considered doing it through
them to help her out.
Being a bit sensitive to intellectual property issues, I read the Terms
of Use (ToU). It contains the following section:
Idea submission statement
Any ideas, proposals, and/or other information submitted or
collected on this site shall be considered non-confidential. By
submitting information to this site, or directly to Creative
Memories, you agree that Creative Memories shall not be under any
obligation of confidentiality or non-use, express or implied,
with respect to any submissions, and Creative Memories may
disclose or use any submission for any purpose whatsoever, at its
sole discretion, with no obligation, express or implied, to
compensate or work with the person or entity that supplied the
information, idea and/or proposal in any manner.
Now, that's a pretty far reaching claim. Here it is again, elided to
focus on what I have a problem with.
... By submitting information to this site ... you agree that
... and Creative Memories may ... use any submission for any
purpose whatsoever ... with no obligation ... to compensate or
work with the person or entity that supplied [it] ...
I've contacted them officially asking them just exactly what they
intended to say here, in case it's less than the "your stuff is ours if
you pay us to print it" interpretation I give it. No answer. I've also
contacted them unofficially through the member/dealer network. The
answer from that side is that it's so they can use excerpts of your
stuff in their marketing material without having to find you, work with
you, or pay you, though it wasn't phrased quite that way.
Personally, I find this clause and the unofficial attitude quite
disturbing. Am I overreacting?
--
Thanks,
DougF (KG4LMZ)
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