In the terms of service, Nintendo claims the right to use content from its customers’ devices in a variety of ways, including marketing materials. The Free Software Foundation, a digital rights group, recently raised concerns over Nintendo’s 3DS, a hand-held gaming device that can take photos.
Protests over changes to Facebook’s terms of service in 2009, which seemed to give it rights to users’ content even if they discontinued their accounts, caused the company to change its copyright language. Professional photographers in particular have worried about their work being distributed in ways they would not approve. Much attention has been centered on privacy concerns and the confusing aspects of companies’ privacy policies. In a recent episode, the television show “South Park” poked fun at the tendency to consent to such agreements without reading them, when one character discovered that he had inadvertently given Apple the right to surgically transform him into a “product that is part human and part centipede, and part Web browser and part e-mailing device.” In the real world, there has been more discussion of what users could be risking than concrete examples of problems. And of course many terms of service, which are heavy on legal language, include clauses that assert the company’s right to change them without notice. But the more such services people use, the harder it becomes to keep track of the things to which they are agreeing. The extent of that control is typically laid out in the terms of service that users agree to when they sign up for Internet services and smartphone applications. Others say Twitpic’s move shows the tenuous control people have over what they post through Internet services. But the scope of the deal is not clear, and professional photographers are worried that it could allow the agency to profit from any photo posted to Twitpic. World Entertainment News, whose photo business revolves largely around shots of celebrities, says it is interested only in the photographs posted to the accounts of people like Britney Spears, Russell Brand and Demi Moore. “There has been much unauthorized use of Twitpic images which we shall be addressing without delay,” said Lloyd Beiny, the agency’s chief executive. The deal allows the agency to sell images posted on Twitpic for publication, and to pursue legal action against those who use such images commercially without its permission, according to the agency. World Entertainment News Network, a news and photo agency, announced this month that it had become the “exclusive photo agency partner” of Twitpic, a service with over 20 million registered users that allows people to upload images and link to them on Twitter.
If you post a photo on the Web, it still belongs to you, right? Well, be sure to read the fine print.
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