In order to quell some “mass hysteria” on ezboard about its terms of use in relation to ownership of copyright, ezboard, Inc. moved swiftly and re-wrote the terms of use for ezboard and Yuku.

Now bear in mind that ezboard, Inc. threatens to take legal action against people copying posts made on ezboard to other message boards or web sites, how do you think they’d re-write the relevant section? Pay a lawyer to re-write it or rip them off from someone else by copying them from elsewhere?

Here are the sections from the recently amended MySpace terms:

“MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the MySpace Services, you hereby grant to MySpace.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the MySpace Services.

“Without this license, MySpace.com would be unable to provide the MySpace Services. For example, without the right to modify Member Content, MySpace.com would not be able to digitally compress music files that Members submit or otherwise format Content to satisfy technical requirements, and without the right to publicly perform Member Content, MySpace.com could not allow Users to listen to music posted by Members. The license you grant to MySpace.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to MySpace.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that MySpace.com is not required to pay you for the use on the MySpace Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that MySpace.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the MySpace Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the MySpace Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the MySpace Services. The license does not grant MySpace.com the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant MySpace.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the MySpace Services.”

Now let’s look at the updated section from the ezboard terms:

“ezboard.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post to the ezboard Services. After posting your Content to the ezboard Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the ezboard Services, you hereby grant to ezboard.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the ezboard Services.

“Without this license, ezboard.com would be unable to provide the ezboard Services. The license you grant to ezboard.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to ezboard.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that ezboard.com is not required to pay you for the use on the ezboard Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that ezboard.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the ezboard Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the ezboard Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the ezboard Services. The license does not grant ezboard.com the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant ezboard.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the ezboard and its sublicensees Services.”

Hmm! Now let’s look at the revised Yuku terms:

“Yuku.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post to the Yuku Services. After posting your Content to the Yuku Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Yuku Services, you hereby grant to Yuku.com a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute such Content solely on and through the Yuku Services. Without this license, Yuku.com would be unable to provide the Yuku Services. The license you grant to Yuku.com is non-exclusive (meaning you are free to license your Content to anyone else in addition to Yuku.com), fully-paid and royalty-free (meaning that Yuku.com is not required to pay you for the use on the Yuku Services of the Content that you post), sublicensable (so that Yuku.com is able to use its affiliates and subcontractors such as Internet content delivery networks to provide the Yuku Services), and worldwide (because the Internet and the Yuku Services are global in reach). This license will terminate at the time you remove your Content from the Yuku Services. The license does not grant Yuku.com the right to sell your Content, nor does the license grant Yuku.com the right to distribute your Content outside of the Yuku and its sublicensees Services.”

Now, do these look only-ever-so-slightly similar to the MySpace terms? Apart, obviously, from the music elements (as neither ezboard nor Yuku presently offer music storage facilities), they do seem remarkably similar, don’t they? I know ezboard are desperately seeking to have Yuku become a MySpace clone, but this is taking the piss! Oh and in this post on an ezboard message board, the poster claims to quote from an e-mail from Robert Labatt, ezboard, Inc.’s CEO, in which he is claimed to have admitted that:

“Our new TOU is a copy of the MySpace TOU.”

I wonder what MySpace will have to say about this?