There is a lot of discussion over at Facebook about their new Terms of Service. I won't go into the details here - you can read all about it here.

In a nutshell, people are up in arms about the proposed Section 2.3 which states:

"2.3 For content that is covered by intellectual property rights (like photos and videos), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, copy, publicly perform or display, distribute, modify, translate, and create derivative works of (“use”) any content you post on or in connection with Facebook. This license ends when you delete your content or your account."

The funny part is that this is ONLY a big deal because it has had such media attention. The current Facebook Terms state:

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content."

Almost all other networking sites like LinkedIn, Yahoo etc have terms that are pretty much the same. I am willing to bet that more than 98% of the people who sign up for these free services NEVER read the Terms to which they agree, yet those same people (who claim to be professional writers, artists and photographers) are now going nuts about the Terms, claiming that their work will be stolen, sold or used without their permission.

First - If you ARE a professional writer, artist or photographer, why the heck are you using Facebook to post your professional work???

Facebook is a great social networking tool, so go ahead and use it to promote yourself, your business, your website, your services, but don't post your professional work there. Post samples with watermarks or copyright if you must, or link to your own website where you can control your material.

Second - READ THE TERMS when you sign up for an internet site! Don't complain later because you are too lazy to read.

Third - Understand that ANYTHING you post to an internet server / site should be considered able to be viewed by ANYONE. If you have that mindset - you will NOT POST anything that you don't want others to see. Most people don't really understand how the privacy options work and what can bypass them.

Fourth - Most people also do not understand what goes on 'behind the curtain' - the technology that gives them the cool features they want. As an example - a big part of 2.3 is so that Facebook can make sure applications work that share information. If you like these features - you need to let them have the legal right use them in the way needed - or forget the applications.

Fifth - Facebook is FREE. I can't really see how you can complain. You have the right to not use it.

I can't believe how people have become so used to getting free services like Facebook, agreeing to their Terms without reading them, and then going absolutely nuts when they discover something they don't even understand.

All I can do is shake my head and move on.