Here's a write up from The Consumerist on "facebooks-new-terms-of-service-we-can-do-anything-we-want-with-your-content-forever."
The bold areas are my emphasis.You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.
The old ToS used to state if you removed content, this license would expire. But now they have a clause that they retain the rights to it.
The bold areas are my emphasis.The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.
So pretty much, even now if you remove your content, they still maintain rights to it as it will be within their archives/backups.
What does that mean? If taken literally, any of the photos you have uploaded to Facebook you can no longer offer an exclusive license to anyone since Facebook retains the right to sub-license.
Very scary. IANAL so I have no idea how enforceable this would be. But it appears to severely limits the control and the type license you can issue on your own work.
Has Facebook gone too far? Have intellectual/creative property rights been eroded away to such a degree that it belongs only to large corporate entities?
What are your thoughts?