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THE REST OF THE ORIGINAL "LEST WE FORGET" PAGE FOLLOWS
Note: some off-my-site links below may no longer be valid, working on it.
Here is the first letter that came across my desk, alerting me to the situation:
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 8:15 PM
Subject: IS THIS CORRECT????????
"In short, if you sign up again for the new Yahoo/Geocites, you give them ALL rights to the material on your page - they own it now."
Reply needed ASAP
Here is an excerpt from another letter;
****** Pasted directly from terms of service, the part I have bold faced is what I am angry with and IS NOT what they are discussing in this letter they sent to you, this is saying exactly what it is saying, that they can legally go in and for example take (Jane Doe's) graphics, call them their own, use them for profit if they wish, etc, etc, THAT IS WRONG!
8. CONTENT SUBMITTED TO YAHOO
By submitting Content to any Yahoo property, you automatically grant, or warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted Yahoo the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed. You acknowledge that Yahoo does not pre-screen Content, but that Yahoo and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to refuse, edit, move or remove any Content that is publicly available via the Service. Without limiting the foregoing, Yahoo and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates the TOS or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content. In this regard, you acknowledge that you may not rely on any Content created by Yahoo or submitted to Yahoo, including without limitation information in Yahoo! Message Boards, Yahoo! Clubs, and in all other parts of the Service.
That bold text up there is pretty BOLD of any person, let alone a company, to put in their "rental" contract. Would you sign a rental contract anywhere that agreed to give the property owner the contents you put in the premises you were renting? This also explains why they wanted everyone to reregister. We agreed with Geocities to have advertising on our pages to pay our rent, not to give our page content to the yahoos at Yahoo!
This next letter pretty much gives the experience and feeling of most Geocities Citizens:
Special notes about the site
hosted by Yahoo/GeoCities
When I first joined GeoCities on December 1996 it was all new and exciting........the same Internet was a new experience, everybody seemed to love each other, it was a brand new world.
GeoCities didn't hassle the visitors of their "citizens" home pages with their annoying ads that noone read, because everybody close it as soon as they pop up, nor pretended that pages were their own. They said their goal was to create a virtual community.
In the original spirit of the Internet I believed it as did many many others.Then it was far west rules, and the megacorporations took control of the Net, so that now everything is commercial, businness, and the dream suddenly over.
Furthermore GeoCities changed the rules while playing the game. Many people visit my pages and many others linked them: I got 5000 visitors in the main page and 20,000 in the whole site in less than three years, not bad for a personal home page: that's why I didn't cancel my account yet, and they know that.
During June 1999, Yahoo basically hijacked my website and prevented me from update it until I accepted their new contract that states that publishers on their server must give Yahoo a "royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content" in any form or media.
Now that I'm free to update my website and express my consent, I expressely refuse the new contract. Also, I'm not responsible of the content of the pop up windows containing commercial advertising and of the cookies they send when my pages are accessed. I don't like their presence, too.
There is additional information at Elf Qrin's Lair Both graphics featured above were designed by Elf Qrin.
The following is on my Homesite. I just wished to share it here. Perhaps some of you will adopt something similar and post it on your pages, whatever "free" domain your site is in
TERMS OF SUBMISSION
I hereby unequivocally state that these are my Terms Of Submission for putting my work here in the domain of Yahoo!Geocities.By accepting my submission for your free homepage service,
you = Yahoo!Geocities agree to:
1. Obtain my permission for any of my works you may want to, including but not limited to; modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such works (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for promotional purposes, or for any monetary gain.
2. Acknowledge that I own the copyright to my works, and give credit and/or compensation to me if I do agree for you to modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such works (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for promotional purposes, or for any monetary gain.
3. That at any time, I have the right to remove my pages and be assured that any and all works of my own creation will be deleted and destroyed from any of your computers, databases, and any other storage utility that houses my works.
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Here is Greyhaunt's comment:I am so damn happy :) little smily icons just can't express it! I have already posted the new information on The Haunting page - for me this is now over.
Now comes the healing.
Question: "So, Bottom Line, Are You Doing This As A Marketing Thing Or Are You Building Societies of the New Frontier?""
Answer: ""We really are building Societies of the New Frontier."
HUAHUAHUA!!!!!! ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That original Geocities FAQ is here!
The Yahoos! TOS we had to agree to in order to edit or remove the content on our site: Click Here
Footnote: Yahoo! VIPs are claiming that Geocities had the
same terms in their TOS, but they did not. If they had there would not have been
the amount of "homesteaders" that there were. It was said that it was too bad that someone did not have a copy of the old Geocities TOS to post for comparison!! I notice
that Yahoo! has not done so.
Someone did have! "come.to/boycottyahoo" has/had a Geocities ToS on their site, and here is a copy of that Geocities Terms of Service.
I was told the Tripod TOS is the same as the oiginal Yahoos!. Here it is. (it isn't the same :o)
Many great graphics were made during the boycott. You can still see some at vividimagination.com
04/15/03 Note: the current vividimagination.com site is not the same! Time changes everything.
If you are building a Remember Page, please email the link
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