Friday 6 November 2009

Perpetual motion?

The 1709 Blog receives all sorts of fascinating information about new online services. The latest of these is Motionbox, which has just offered
"to waive the pro-account setup fee for you or any of your readers who sign up - it's a $50 value. There are now 3 levels of Motionbox service - Basic, Premium, and PRO".
To explain further,
"Motionbox PRO is a comprehensive video hosting solution and includes archival storage, web-based editing, streaming and embedding, all in up to 1080p HD quality".
Indeed, it looks very impressive. But the thing I like best about services such as this is the easy accessibility of the terms and conditions under which they're offered -- you're never more than a couple of mouse-clicks away from the literary output of a fellow lawyer. The Ts and Cs here are by no means unique, but they are a sobering proposition for would-be users to consider. Thus, under Grant of Rights the text reads:
"You hereby grant to Motionbox a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual [shucks, I'd hoped the licence might terminate when the copyright did ...], world-wide, irrevocable, transferable license with the right to grant sublicenses through multiple tiers of sublicensees (including, without limitation, licensing your User Content to our Partners [who currently include Bebo and AOL]) to publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, store, transcode, syndicate, broadcast, reproduce, edit, modify, create derivative works, and otherwise use and reuse your User Content (or any portions or derivative works thereof) in any manner, in any medium, for any purpose. Motionbox and its Partners reserve the right to display advertisements in connection with your User Content and to use your User Content for advertising and promotional purposes. If you mark your Content as "Public User Content", you acknowledge that any Motionbox user may exercise the Motionbox User Rights with respect to such Public User Content as set forth below. For more information on User Content, please review our Privacy Policy".
Er, perhaps not.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hi,

On behalf of the Motionbox team, thank you for your input on this and letting us know your thoughts on this part of our Terms. This paragraph may be specific to videos marked as "open access" on our site and not private or protected videos. Open access videos are publicly available videos such as the ones on YouTube.

We can safely let you know, however, that not once in the past 2-3 years has Motionbox ever used any video that was private or protected without asking the video owner in advance. A reason to ask a video owner would be to have a member highlight or as a testimonial of how Motionbox is used.

Please note that we are TRUSTe certified and have taken measures to ensure our members that we comply with best internet practices regarding any of your personal information and your privacy.

If you have any other questions or concerns about Motionbox and our policies, please don't hesitate to ask further. We take great value in feedback and open conversation about Motionbox and our service.

Thanks again!
Anita W.
Motionbox Support Manager