New AT&T Terms of Service

Recently, I posted Cloud Computing at my other blog. In it, I advised everyone to carefully read the Terms of Service agreements for free websites and email services so you'd know exactly what privacy issues were at stake.

Yesterday, as an AT&T broadband customer, I received email notification of their revised Terms of Service. I just finished reading the long version of their new T of S. They're claiming the same Grant of License that is the trouble spot with the other web services, to wit:

11. a. Grant of License. AT&T and Yahoo! do not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Site or Service. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Site, you grant AT&T and Yahoo! the following world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive license(s) as applicable:

(i) With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, you grant AT&T and Yahoo! the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Site solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Site and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Site.

(ii) With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on any publicly accessible area of the Site other than Yahoo! Groups, you grant AT&T and Yahoo! the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Site solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Site and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Site .

(iii) With respect to Content other than photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Site other than Yahoo! Groups, you grant AT&T and Yahoo! the perpetual, irrevocable and fully sub-licensable license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, publicly perform and publicly display such Content (in whole or in part) and to incorporate such Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed.

Yes, you own the copyright, but by posting anything on a public area that AT&T owns, you are granting them the license to use it any way they see fit. There's one big glaring gaffe here. Publicly accessible area is not defined. Is the email system considered a publicly accessible area?

Takeaway Truth

If this doesn't bother you, then that's fine as long as you realize what you're doing. If it does bother you, then you are forewarned.