terms of service

Twitter has won a battle in its war against spam.

The microblogging service settled a lawsuit on Tuesday with marketing software company TweetAdder, in which the agreement was clearly in favor of Twitter. The terms of the settlement were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Under the terms of the settlement, the owners and employees of TweetAdder agree not to take part in "creating, developing, manufacturing, adapting, modifying, making available, trafficking in, using, disclosing, selling, licensing, distributing (with or without monetary charge), updating, providing costumer support for, or offering for use, sale, license, or distribution (with … Read more

If all you envisioned developing by being an early recipient of Google Glass Explorer Edition was a quick resale profit, think again: Google has rules against reselling the wearable tech without its permission.

As the Web giant began shipping the high-tech specs this week, it also unveiled a host of developer preview documentation, specs, and rules about what developers could and couldn't do. One of those things, apparently, is reselling or even loaning the $1,500 device to someone else. Developers who do risk having their prized specs deactivated. … Read more

Instagram has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit over controversial terms-of-service changes the popular photo-sharing service announced last year.

The lawsuit, which was filed in December and seeks class-action status, accused the service of breach of contract and trying to "grab for customer property rights" after announcing revisions to its terms of service that many feared gave the service perpetual rights to sell users' photographs without payment or notification.

After a user backlash, Facebook-owned Instagram soon backpedaled on the changes and announced that the terms would revert to the version in place since the service launched … Read more

Instagram's attempt to change its terms of service has inspired not only a user backlash but also-- now -- a class-action lawsuit.

The proposed terms of service were introduced last week, though Instagram has since backpedaled. The lawsuit -- filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday and first reported by Reuters -- argues that the proposed changes would "transfer valuable property rights to Instagram while simultaneously relieving Instagram from any liability for commercially exploiting customers' photographs and artistic content, while shielding Instagram from legal liability."

Instagram is making a "grab for customer … Read more

Instagram has backpedaled on changes to its terms of service that appeared to let the maker of the photo-sharing app sell users' images, with founder and CEO Kevin Systrom announcing today that the terms will revert to the version in place since the service launched in 2010.

Facebook-owned Instagram ignited a storm of protest with the announcement earlier this week that it was claiming perpetual rights to sell users' photographs without notifying or compensating the photographer. Under that new policy, Facebook claimed the right to license all public Instagram photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, … Read more

If the events surrounding Instagram over the last few days have made you want to close your account and start using a different service such as Flickr, we understand. But before you go and delete your Instagram account, wouldn't it be nice to have all of your photos imported to Flickr for you?

Check out @freethephotos to automagically migrate @instagram pics to @flickr bit.ly/VQ5wQs

As you can see from the tweet above, it's possible and the process is simple.

Freethephotos is a new Web site created during the … Read more

Instagram apologized to its users today, saying it will "remove" language from its legal terms that would have let it sell users' photos or use them in advertisements.

In a blog post this afternoon, Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said it's "our mistake that this language is confusing" and that the company is "working on updated language."

"Since making these changes, we've heard loud and clear that many users are confused and upset about what the changes mean," he wrote.

Instagram's terms of use agreement announced yesterday sparked a user revolt … Read more

News of Instagram's revised terms of services agreement, which essentially allows the company to use your photos for advertising, have caused user backlash, but none so comical as the stir caused by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister.

Arielle Zuckerberg, who works for Google social-media marketing division Wildfire, hit her "Like" button today on an Instagram photo posted to Facebook by Instagram user and professional photographer Clayton Cubitt. The photo was a screenshot of a portion of the new terms of service, with a caption that read, "Instagram's suicide note."

The new terms, which … Read more

Individual privacy is a hot topic in the social-networking world right now. But have people thought about privacy of the companies, such as protection of their brand, logo, and trademarks?

This is something Facebook is looking into. In the recent revisions (PDF) of its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, the social-networking site is now saying that account holders "will not use" the word "Book."

That's right, Facebook is trying to trademark the word "Book."

If these revisions are approved, when users sign onto Facebook they will be agreeing not to use that word … Read more