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AT&T lifts (deleted) page from Google EULA

Chrome-plated content heist

Remember Google Chrome's copyright-snaffling EULA? AT&T appears to be doing the same courtesy of a BellSouth ISP offering.

Carl Meredith, a webmaster for a Bellsouth.net-hosted site, pointed out that BellSouth, an AT&T subsidiary, has just changed its Terms of Service (TOS). Here is sections 10a(i) and 10a(ii) from the new Terms of Service:

(i) With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on any publicly accessible area of the Site, you grant AT&T 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 such Content is removed from the Site.
(ii) 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, you grant AT&T 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.

Carl Meredith points out: "(It) is eerily worded just like the offending Chrome paragraph. This isn't an issue for (us), but it would be for anyone who parks their intellectual property on AT&T's bellsouth.net host. All of a sudden, it's not just their property."

Just to remind you, here is the original Chrome EULA section that caused such a lot of fuss:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

And here is the original AT&T relevant TOS section 11b:

Ownership of all graphics, text or other information or content materials supplied or furnished by you for incorporation into or delivery through your personal Website shall remain with you (or the party which supplied such materials to you). ...

No content appropriation there. Why did AT&T change it?

AT&T was not immediately able to respond to a query but its input is eagerly awaited. Oddly, for a telephone company, AT&T doesn't give out telephone numbers for such enquiries. We squirt an e-mail to AT&T central and wait for a reply.

Update

Mea culpa. Having left out a crucial paragraph from the AT&T TOS - 10a(ii) - I added it after this article was posted, which was after some people had commented and made them inadvertently look foolish. That put doo-doo on my face! Direct brown stuff to my fan, not theirs. AT&T by the way has not said a dicky bird. ®

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