Myspace hijacks artists rights

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:17 pm

This was just brought to my attention by a member of a graphic design forum which I frequent.

Myspace gets the rights to use any material that you post there, including music, artwork, writing, photographs etc.

From the myspace Terms of Service (TOS).
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6. Proprietary Rights in Content on MySpace.com.
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. This license will terminate at the time you remove such Content from the Services. You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Services or otherwise have the right to grant the license set forth in this section, and (ii) the posting of your Content on or through the Services does not violate the privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights or any other rights of any person. You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Services.

http://collect.myspace.com/misc/terms.html?z=1

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This means that while your work is posted there, myspace can do what they'd like with it.

All of this got a bit more sinister recently when Rupert Murdochs News Corp acquired myspace.

Under the present TOS, this "license" we are granting to myspace to do as they wish with our work ends when we remove content from the myspace servers.

The TOS was recently amended to the following:

"Content posted by you may remain on the MySpace.com servers after you have removed the content from the services, and MySpace.com retains the rights to those copies"

This would mean that myspace retains rights to use your work even after you have removed it. This should be of particular concern not only to artists and musicians but to all of the bratty teenage girls that post pictures of themselves half naked.

One day, if they go on to become rich and famous those pictures may come back to haunt them, as they now belong to news corp. (Fox news)

Or maybe you hear some band out of Australia blowing up, playing all of the songs written by your band. Well, guess what... by making a myspace account you are agreeing to the Terms of Service, and by doing so you are telling myspace this is ok and there is nothing you can do about it and you will never see a penny for your work.

On and on.

Story here.

Now, apparently at some point after this story ran the clause has been changed back to its old form, and the "agreement" is terminated when you remove your work from myspace.

Regardless, this is something that artists, all myspace users really, need to remain vigilant about. As long as you have work posted here myspace can do whatever they want with it. This is something a lot of people probably are not aware of.

Also, how many users were informed about the changes in the TOS? When will they try to sneak it in again?

If you use myspace be warned and stay vigilant. Check the TOS regularly and be wary of what you post there.

dj superflat · Post by **dj superflat** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:29 pm

while paranoia may be appropriate in some case, i think you're being overly paranoid here -- myspace has to have the licenses above to provide the services it provides -- they have to have the right to distribute your pix and music via the internet -- and it also has to have protection where, even after you remove content, the content is still lurking somewhere on one of their gazillion servers (all of us have things on our hard drives we think we've deleted). big media companies do not try to backdoor taking possession of what is, from their perspective, fairly worthless intellectual property. put another way, no court would read those licenses to permit myspace to put out a CD compilation of music from its users.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:38 pm

I'm still sceptical. but thanks for your perspective.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:47 pm

tagworld.com

dj superflat · Post by **dj superflat** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:03 pm

how's charm city? i'm from MD, missing soft crab sandwiches.

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:21 pm

dj superflat wrote:...put another way, no court would read those licenses to permit myspace to put out a CD compilation of music from its users.

like you could ever even entertain the idea that you could stand a chance in court against Murdoch. I'm with the smut, I don't trust these fockers.

Danny Futuro · Post by **Danny Futuro** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:10 pm

b0unce wrote:tagworld.com

tag world is dope.

Sales Dude McBoob · Post by **Sales Dude McBoob** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:18 pm

Thanks Smutek.

I think it's safe to say that anything you put online available to the public has the potential to get away from your control... and for all of the 'Must Agree to our Terms and Conditions' buttons I've clicked on the screen in my life I can't honestly say if I've ever read a single line of any of those contracts.

The language in that Myspace contract is disturbing. I definitely have put stuff on my Myspace that I would want to retain the rights to. Somehow I don't think a legal battle between myself and Myspace over who retains the publishing rights on my Digga Digga Dann Death Angel podcast will occur.

I guess the basic rule is if you have a golden egg in your nest, bring it fresh worms each morning and squat on top of it for the rest of the live long day.

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:45 pm

The shit that goes on the servers is usually pretty low quality mp3 stuff

But yeah, if Myspace started avertising on tv and played your song you'd probably want to get your nickels worth of that

I don't really think Myspace is all that bad - I have a group of friends I keep in contact with daily - alot of producers and labels one click away and most respond and I've gotten some Myspace 'action' in the clubs "Oh you're a friend of mine on Myspace let's kiss." "Ok" "I'll leave you a comment tomorrow." "OK"

I'm the one saying "OK"

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:00 pm

Sales Dude McBoob wrote:Thanks Smutek.

I think it's safe to say that anything you put online available to the public has the potential to get away from your control... and for all of the 'Must Agree to our Terms and Conditions' buttons I've clicked on the screen in my life I can't honestly say if I've ever read a single line of any of those contracts.
.

Look like I am not the only one, I mean not reading that shit.
Thanks Smutek for the info.
As SDMB say you should be aware , putting anything online is like giving away for free. Smart asses will find they way whatever non-download protection may be used.
I turned it around and put material that I dont have exactly clear and secured rights to or dont care too much about. Since the piracy in my home country is bigger then the legal sells I just put the cheesy vocoder "stamps" all over with my name, if some Bombay producer will get angry and pissed, I dont mind, free publicity is always welcomed.
After just 2 weeks on myspace I got in touch with some interesting people heard tons of amazing music. It is increadible so much of stuff I would never hear otherwise- rap from Spain or Bulgaria, Japanese "I dont know how to name it" check that girl www.myspace.com/tigarah btw. I did already 2 songs for her.
My experience as musician is that we are almost always exploited one way or the other, record labels, GEMA etc I am happy with whatever cuts that land on my bank account. After all the pleasure I get from making music, meeting amazing people ( specially ladies) these corporate rats will never experience.

raapie · Post by **raapie** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:30 pm

does anyone remember what that guy with mp3.com did?

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:35 pm

dj superflat wrote:how's charm city? i'm from MD, missing soft crab sandwiches.

All is well here in Charm City. Same old same old, gun totin teenagers slingin dope and coke, 5 dollar whores, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, lots of murders, rising housing costs, lots of plant closings and job loss in the county, but there is a massive building boom going on downtown, johns hopkins is getting bigger and bigger so that puts a pretty face on things.

breaks and jungle and jungle and breaks in the clubs.

I just throw on some gangstar tapes and hole up in my studio.....

It's like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
except it's reality and you don't see it on TV
Brothers keep dying in the streets cuz the streets are designed
to keep you from having peace of mind
I know an old man, he's got a rifle to stifle
any young punk, he hides it under his bunk
And I know a kid who's been to jail
and he told me that the system had failed him
So now he's out the joint and he's like flippin' on kids
and the people in his neighborhood are flippin' their wigs
But you gotta check the move cuz there's a reason
a method to the madness and you know what I'm meaning
Cuz rather than being the herb, vic, or chump
you can be just like my man cold holding the pump
But living like that you take a chance with your life
but some things in life, sometimes will make you uptight
I'm like an avalanche of knowledge pounding down all fools
all fakes, all snakes

Just kidding. Well, not really... You know. It's Baltimore bro. Same old.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:39 pm

rikhyray wrote:I turned it around and put material that I dont have exactly clear and secured rights to or dont care too much about.

Be careful if you are putting it on myspace...

"You agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owing any person by reason of any Content posted by you to or through the Services. "

I read this as "If we get sued as a result of using your content we pass the buck on to you"

Maybe I am reading into it too much. I don't know. I posted a bulletin about it on myspace and it seems to be making the rounds, so thats cool. If anything, atleast people will be more aware.

I don't trust big corporations... they are the new world order, the only real government we have at the moment.

rasputin · Post by **rasputin** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:04 pm

I have looked and looked and looked on myspace and I guess I've finally passed the age of technological understanding, because I have never seen such a relentless stream of wannabe gangster teenagers, stupid high school popularity contests and utterly, utterly unviewable web pages.

I keep hearing about all the great music and marketing opportunities that are buried in there if you know how to look, but I haven't seen a single site I would go back to on a bet.

Oh well, what do I know? Not a hell of a lot apparently.

r.

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:28 pm

You are right Smutek, I wouldnt do it with non Indian stuff. know the scene and legal situation,
Unlike Dr.Dre,who was punished for being arrogant and stupid. First because he underestimated Indians probably thinking of us as stupid savages who live in jungles so he took complete song ( not just some samples- entire song), added some Bass drum, rapper and singer (few hours job, lazy ass), released a usual strip joint video ( with some indian fabrics though) but didnt even bother to write credits- composer, title of the song, the movie. And that is what pissed the authors- lack of respect. Stupid because he should know better, we have the world largest film industry and they earn, have money, enough to sue him. He lost and the CDs had to be taken off the shelves worldwide.
In my case "the worst" might be that I will have to do some ghost arranging for the "victim", getting paid for it anyway.

Rasputin, you look in wrong sections, that artist thingy is different nothing to do with teenage virtual romancing, I got few "weird" friends requests, some half naked ladies and Nigerian princess in distress "your photo I like very nice" ( and I thought Nigerians scams are history) but mainly interesting musicians and now I keep checking myspace whenever Live is remdering or while burning data etc. Unlike mp3.com which was 90% rubbish, I am amazed how many high quality stuff is on myspace.

P.S.
Just remember that I did searching via genres and indeed that was boring shit what works is checking friends of friends, like yesterday I got spanish request and following it was surprised to hear how interesting Spanish hiphop is.