Rupert Murdoch and Billy Bragg: you have to wonder how these guys got in bed in the first place. It's a notion that'll induce Scanners-esque head explosions and I wouldn't spend much more time it, as the avowed socialist Bragg has taken his toothbrush and, we presume, did not let the door hit him on the way out of avowed capitalist Murdoch's crib.
Irked by terms of service that apparently gave MySpace "a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute" his music, British songwriter Billy Bragg pulled his music from the social networking site.
Bragg's MySpace.com page offers this explanation: "SORRY THERE'S NO MUSIC," because "once an artist posts up any content (including songs), it then belongs to My Space (AKA Rupert Murdoch) and they can do what they want with it, throughout the world without paying the artist."
As Publishing 2.0 notes, the falling out is a harsh reminder of the lengths MySpace will go to compensate for not owning any of the content (read: the underlying value upon which much of the enterprise depends) posted on its sites and of MySpace's still-showing Web 1.0 roots.
Naturally, MySpace chalks this all up to a bit of sloppy lawyering.
"Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that MySpace is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist's work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends," Berman says. "Obviously, we don't own their music or do anything with it that they don't want."
Whew. Well, I'm relieved; how about you? As we all know, when someone dismisses the tiny print in a contract as "legalese," that part is immediately invalidated, right?
Billy Bragg to MySpace: You'll get nothing and like it!
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. "As Publishing 2.0 notes, the falling out is a harsh reminder of the lengths MySpace will go to compensate for not owning any of the content (read: the underlying value upon which much of the enterprise depends) posted on its sites and of MySpace's still-showing Web 1.0 roots."
This is another example of how big companes are still sleeping upon Web 1.0 ideas. This will only become a PR disaster for My space in the coming days.
Posted at 6:33AM on Jun 13th 2006 by Razib Ahmed
3. What's the big deal? Has anyone read the You Tube terms of service? They can use uploaded videos for anything they want without compensating the producer of the content.
Posted at 12:00PM on Jun 13th 2006 by Rob Safuto
4. It the wild wild west 'That's the Big Deal'
Neal Saferstein
Posted at 9:06PM on Jun 13th 2006 by Neal Saferstein
5. Well, it sounds pretty bad, based on the legalese. And, honestly, who can trust a company not to commercialize items if it has a legal right to do so? Heck, we can't even trust them when they don't have legal rights to do things!
Anyway, if MySpace is sharpening up the language so that it is only granted a non-exclusive right to publish said content on it's own network for whatever purposes it likes, instead of actually acquiring any ownership, then it should be alright, in terms of black eye possibilities, I think.
6. Have they not heard of creativecommons.org? A creative commons license allows the content producer to determine the ways their content can be reused.
Posted at 1:14PM on Jun 15th 2006 by shelley henson
7. Does creativecommon have a wide selection of content?
Neal Saferstein
Posted at 3:11AM on Jun 18th 2006 by Neal Saferstein
8. Taking your music down because you feel you don't own it any more and are concerned you wont get any royalties from it's worldwide distribution doesn't strike me as very socialist. It seems like the action of a capitalist fearing for his profits, to me. Where's the socialist caring, sharing disposition in that action?
Posted at 6:47AM on Jun 21st 2006 by simon
11. I think there's a little bit of an over-reaction and misunderstanding to what the ToS actually says:
It's fair use. You still maintain rights to the intellectual property outside of myspace.com, regardless, they could only use it for the promotion of myspace. It's a limited disclaimer. ie, they could promote your profile, writings, or works but they couldn't use your art, designs, or anything else to profit from it outside of myspace.com.
Let's go through it...
"By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, profiles, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, "Content") on or through the Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com, a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services."
Please note that the above paragraph is ONE entire sentence. Its purpose is primarily protectionist. This statement is required for two reasons; first, due to the intrinsic nature of web content, you make it acceptable for other people to view it and thereby copy it as a function of them viewing it (Web data is downloaded to a browser and viewed thereby through the creation of a copy, residual or otherwise); second, for promotional purposes on myspace.com. All they are doing is confirming that you have given them permission to re-create, modify, etc your works directly or indirectly through other users viewing it, or using it on and through the Services" in otherwords, within the Myspace.com World.
Nowhere in the terms of service does it mention "Fox" or anything of that nature. See for yourself
http://www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/Pages/TermsConditions.aspx
Hope that Helps,
Posted at 11:32PM on Aug 13th 2006 by Brandon Erik Bertelsen
1. Rupert Murdoch is a true capitlist, He should buy a record label and leverage it as a new media property.
Neal Saferstein
Posted at 10:46PM on Jun 12th 2006 by Neal Saferstein