hi all

At 14:00 1999/07/01 -0400, hilary wrote:
>Jed Blue wrote:
>>
>> But I strongly recommend you forward this site to everyone you know with
>> a Geocities page, or who uses Yahoo.  Basically, Geocities in the last
>> view days have changed their Terms of Service to match Yahoo's (which
>> owns Geocities).  DO NOT agree to these terms of service--by agreeing to
>> them you give Yahoo total, perpetual, and irrevocable ownership of your
>> site's contents!  Read their Terms of Service if you don't believe me,
>> it's in Section 8.  This site is the center for the growing boycott of
>> yahoo...
>>
>> <http://www.sitepowerup.com/boycottyahoo/boycottyahoo.htm>
>>
>> Anyway, I'm sending this around to people, and I hope you join in.

i read this message [didn't go to the site mentioned]
preferring instead to look in the horse's mouth
and then went to my geocities site
and read this:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 08:49:27 -0700
Subject: Yahoo! GeoCities TOS Letter

 Dear Homesteaders,

 We've heard your concerns about the Yahoo! Terms of Service, especially
 the section of the Terms regarding content that you include on your
 Yahoo! GeoCities site. We'd like to clarify our intentions.

 Yahoo! does not claim ownership of the content on your site. We never
 have.

 One of the terms in the Yahoo! Terms of Service grants us the license (in
 other words, gives us your consent) to use the content on your GeoCities
 site. We ask for this license to do the job of serving your pages to the
 world, but Yahoo! agrees to the following rules with respect to the
 content on your GeoCities site:

    * You license your content to Yahoo! so that we can display the
      content on your GeoCities site and promote the Yahoo! GeoCities
      services.
    * The license exists for as long as you continue to be a Yahoo!
      GeoCities homesteader, no longer.
    * Yahoo! has the right to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, and
      create derivative works of your content only for the purpose of
      hosting your GeoCities site and providing and promoting the Yahoo!
      GeoCities service.

 Some people have asked if under these rules Yahoo! can do things like
 publish a book or make a movie using your Yahoo! GeoCities homepage
 content. We cannot.

 We intend for these rules to be legally binding on Yahoo!.   And, as the
 lawyers say, to the extent that any of these rules conflict with or
 modify the Yahoo! Terms of Service, these rules will prevail.

 Folks, please know that we've built our network of services and tools by
 committing ourselves to our users. Starting in the early days of the Web
 with the Yahoo! directory, we've always made it our job to respond to
 your needs. We understand that we owe any success to you. We have no
 intention of violating the trust that we've built with you over the
 years.

 We're blessed to be working in an industry in which, on a daily basis, we
 hear the good and the bad directly from people like you. We listen when
 you talk to us. The recent merger of Yahoo! and GeoCities does not (and
 will not) change that.

 We understand your recent concerns, but there are some very basic and
 important reasons why an online company such as Yahoo! asks for such a
 license.

 For starters, we use many computers to serve to the world the millions of
 GeoCities home pages. In order to display your pages quickly and not lose
 any of your content (say, in a computer crash), we often need to copy
 your files onto more than one computer. Very simply, the license assures
 that we can do this.

 In addition, if we choose to promote your page on the top of Yahoo!
 GeoCities, or anywhere else on the Yahoo! network (even, for example, in
 a marketing promotion of Yahoo!'s many services), we need to reproduce
 the content. Again, the license assures that we can do this.

 There are many times when we use other companies to help us serve web
 pages on our global network. Sometimes information is changed as it is
 served to the world. For example, if your page contains images in JPEG
 format and the other company's service uses GIF format, your images may
 need to be adapted to fit in.

 These are just a few reasons. Also keep in mind that the Yahoo! GeoCities
 Terms of Service (which have been standard on the Yahoo! network) are
 very similar to the terms of service of many major Web sites and online
 services, including other home page providers.

 We feel the recent merger of Yahoo! and GeoCities will provide many
 exciting opportunities for our users, but if you'd rather not keep your
 home page with us we, obviously, will respect your wishes. Follow this
 link and we will remove your home page and account as soon as possible.

 Thank you for your time,

 The Yahoo! Team

<http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/info/toshelp.html>
------------------------------------------------------------------------

so far, i see no reason to change my website location
but i will in a shot
if i do

please send me your thoughts


janet

ps
i mean in re the yahoo terms of service controversy


janet paterson
52 now / 41 dx / 37 onset
PO Box 171  Almonte  Ontario  K0A 1A0  Canada
a new voice <http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Village/6263/>
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