I have a Facebook and have for years. I’ve been a member since before they opened it to non-college students, before applications, before anything except the basic profile. I thought it was a great site and easy to use, but now? Now they’re big and corporate and, apparently, evil.

Colleen Lindsay, an agent out of NYC, posted a warning on her blog today about Facebook’s new terms of service. Basically, Facebook now owns everything you post on Facebook forever. Including things you set to update via an RSS feed.

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual,
non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license
(with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish,
stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display,
transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate,
excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute
(through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post
on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the
promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings
or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share
Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness
and image for any purpose, including commercial or
advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with
the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof. You
represent and warrant that you have all rights and
permissions to grant the foregoing licenses.

While I have never posted anything about my writing or any of my so-called intellectual content on Facebook, I know that others do. I don’t know what, if anything, can be done about this ridiculous clause in the terms of service, but I would recommend not posting anything there that you might one day regret losing.

And, for a better explanation, check out Colleen’s post about it here.