Weep with me, a time for tears

Hey David,


Thanks so much for ferreting this info out….this is very troubling indeed…would you know if Zaadz ( pre-Gaia ) had a similar policy in place as to “license to content” etc?


Leonardo

Oh yeah…another quickie question….how would Gaia's policy apply to  us putting up a link to our personal/private web sites… i.e. if we put a link to our personal web sites on our Gaia profile page  ( or wherever ) does that give them  this all inclusive  draconian ownership of OUR intellectual property as well?….

that's pretty sleezy of Gaia…sounds like a lot a lawsuits on the horizon. i'll be very careful what I place on this site from now on…i'm already feeling not so warm and fuzzy…not only can they steal it….they can bastardize in any way for them to make money, and not compensate the creator….yuck!

As a graphic designer who has original work posted on the site, I am seriously considering leaving the community (after reading your post).

Off to do more research on the topic.

In my understanding it pretty much affects ( negatively ) anyone and everyone with any Intellectual property on this site…it underhandedly removes and hijacks our “copyright” which in its very basic form means that the creator of a “work” ( text, grahics, video, music etc…) has the EXCLUSIVE right to copy and use THEIR work wherever, whenever, however they choose…it is akin to someone walking into your home and unilaterally taking your most prized possession without your permission and calling it their “policy”…

Agreed :-)  sounds fishy to me too.  I had been working on a project akin to Zaadz/Gaia before.  It was designed for showcasing people's work and forming collaborative partnerships for people who had gotten a “clue.”  When Zaadz popped on the scene, I thought someone else happened upon the same idea so I put it down.  We'll see if this “policy” is a catalyst for that project to take on new life again.  :-) 

Hi everyone,

The ToU's for Gaia have been discussed in depth over at  http://pods.gaia.com/gaia/discussions/view/227574#230666  for a couple of weeks now.

Last week, on Jan 9th, Siona posted the following:

“The difference between Gaiam Community's and Zaadz's terms is that we currently have an additional disclaimer:

“Zaadz claims no ownership over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through the Website. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, copyright, and trademark rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Website and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate.”

If you'd be more comfortable if we added that to the Gaia Community clause, I'll make doubly-sure that its in.

Blessings right back, and thank you thank you thank you for pushing for clarity. :)”

Siona and the Zaadz Team are working with their legal group to get the Terms changed per above with utmost priority… unfortunately, the changes did not get done in time for the launch..

Please be 100% confident that this issue is being dealt with, and soon will  be behind us.

Take care,

Argh. I really liked Zaadz.
My stuff is MINE and I decide when and how I share it.

So now I'm off. No sense being here if I'm not going to post anything anymore. It's been nice and hopefully we will meet again somewhere.
Have a beautiful future everyone.

holy crap are you kidding me
what i write and my photography are mine
and copyright protected
can't sign away my legal right to that
off i go to delete all my stuff i guess

OK, Siona, what's the deal here? Is Dave right that this is going to be switched right away? Why was such a clause allowed in in the first place? This is serious stuff, just the kind of stuff I've previously been posting about.

I'm very unhappy about the mere suggestion that the stuff in my ChiBounding pod could now be the property of Gaiam's, to modify or change and make money from as they will.

THIS IS JUST THE KIND OF STUFF THAT WE ARE ALL VERY CONCERNED ABOUT!

Seriously, this is exactly where we need to have Gaiam be responsible. I don't want to panic or overreact, but this is really very, very bad.

– Jordan Gruber, J.D.

Gah. I know. I just posted this on another thread, but here it is again… Our original terms included the following clause (3.7):

—-

“By submitting, displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Website, you hereby grant to Zaadz a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license through unlimited levels of sub-licensees) to use, copy, reproduce, publish, display, store, transmit and distribute such Content on and through the Website.”

—-

This is a standard agreement; we need to say this in order to provide the service. WIthout it we couldn't use / copy / display / store transmit, content, and we'd be unable to show any visitors to the site your work… which would kinda defeat the purpose.
 
Our legal team advised more robust protection after the sale; it's their job, obviously, to protect the company and they're good (perhaps too good!) at what they do. The additional coverage was meant to make sure that we could do things like compress or convert files (hence the 'modify') for formatting reasons, and to ensure that public discussions, say, could show up as feeds.

However, I'm a heartbroken about what the whole thing sounds like, though, given that we have no plans or desire whatsoever to sell anyone's work.

Right now I'm waiting for sign-off on a modifed set which will hopefully make this final point clear. So please bear with, and send speedy thoughts, and with any luck we'll sort this out soon.

…. and the firestorm began.  

GAIA will need plenty of water - or, a simple addition to the Terms of the original zaadz's

“Zaadz claims no ownership over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through the Website. You or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, copyright, and trademark rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Website and you are responsible for protecting those rights, as appropriate.”

Thank you for such a direct and simple highlight of the problem, brother.

Here's my thoughts on the topic - Bye, Bye Miss Zaadz Pie, Drove my Poetry to the GAIA…

hi everyone,

i don't do legalese. but believe me, as a long time blogger and supporter of Creative Commons myself, i feel your concerns.

that said, as Siona already mentioned, we're in the process of discussing this issue with our legal team. we request your understanding and patience. no need to weep. we'll post an official reply to your concerns on the Team Blog soon.

~C

not very enlightened of Gaia, particularly when I'm sure they are aware that a large percentage of their community are creative souls….this could be another Facebook revolt….

Another repost… please forgive. 

We’re reinstating the original terms, with Zaadz replaced with Gaia Community. If we make any updates to those, we’ll post an alert. And I’m off right now to post a public apology on the Team blog about it.

I am so, so, SO sorry, and I’ll take complete responsibility for so naively going along with those changes. The old terms will be up as soon as we redeploy the code; it ought not be more than 30 minutes.

as promised, here's our response on the Team Blog:

http://team.gaia.com/blog/2008/1/gaias_terms_of_service

thanks for your patience and expressing your concerns.

~C

I thank you for looking at this carefully and posting this. I had every confidence in Brian's TOU, now lets see if gaiam walks the talk. My content is off this site until then.

Sings to Eagles and lightenup: Guys? If you read through these comments, again, you'll see that we've reinstated the original terms; clicking on the ToS will bring up the ones that we started with. 3.7 is back. :) Again, there's a response here. And thank you, both, again and again, for your eyes and integrity and care.

Oh, Sings to Eagles. I'm sorry for misinterpreting, and thank you for the clarifcation. I agree, completely, with your comment above.