Wow. eweek is reporting on AOL's new AIM Terms of Service, which require users of AIM to hand over all rights to whatever passes through IM to AOL.
It includes the language:
"You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the content or to be compensated for any such uses"
but the strangest part is this :
In addition, by posting content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this content in any medium
They quote the Macslash editor who summarizes the wierdness of it:
"They're encouraging businesses to use AIM to discuss details of their business correspondence, even to sync their Outlook contact and calendar files, which, according to their TOS, AOL then has the right to publish in any way they see fit, including, among other things, providing that information to business competitors. I'd be pretty damn leery of using AIM@Work for any kind of business"
It is the AIM TOS that users have to accept when they download the AOL client. Iwonder how that effects AIM users who use thrid-party AIM clients like Trilian?
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