Sunday, December 05, 2004
MSN Spaces
What with the Scobleizer blog and the sql junkies blogs, I was wondering when Microsoft would come out with their own public blog service. So, it is finally here. Microsoft is launching MSN Spaces on Thursday. Microsoft might be able to attract some of its established user base and communities from MSN and Hotmail to MSN Spaces, but it remains to be seen how well Microsoft is able to leverage its presence in various other disparate domains from messenging to online music.
Microsoft is closely integrating MSN Spaces with its Messenger and Hotmail programs, with the idea that people will hop from one Microsoft product to another for online communications.
For example, users can set up a system that alerts friends on MSN Messenger when they have updated their Web journals. If a blogger chooses to limit access to his or her Web journal to a select group of guests, those people will need to use Microsoft's "Passport" to log in. The most common way to get a Passport login is to sign up for a Hotmail or Messenger account.
UPDATE : [From Sean Lloyd] It appears that the Terms of Use with MSN Spaces grants Microsoft certain legal rights over your published work. The wording of the terms of use appears to be pretty broad.
For materials you post or otherwise provide to Microsoft related to the MSN Web Sites (a "Submission"), you grant Microsoft permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission. Microsoft may remove your Submission at any time. For each Submission, you represent that you have all rights necessary for you to make the grants in this section. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Microsoft may monitor your e-mail, or other electronic communications and may disclose such information in the event it has a good faith reason to believe it is necessary for purposes of ensuring your compliance with this Agreement, and protecting the rights, property, and interests of the Microsoft Parties or any customer of a Microsoft Party.
Microsoft responds that it is "all about granting us the right to post your content and share it out on MSN". It is anybody's guess as to what will happen if they do violate your copyright. Microsoft has not shied away from suing individuals in the past. I, for one, am planning to stay away. From Sean :
I do not plan on putting anything else on my space until this is cleared up, though. I'm a firm believer of being held to what I signed. What I signed says something more than the lawyer accounts for. Better safe than sorry, as far as I'm concerned.
Microsoft is closely integrating MSN Spaces with its Messenger and Hotmail programs, with the idea that people will hop from one Microsoft product to another for online communications.
For example, users can set up a system that alerts friends on MSN Messenger when they have updated their Web journals. If a blogger chooses to limit access to his or her Web journal to a select group of guests, those people will need to use Microsoft's "Passport" to log in. The most common way to get a Passport login is to sign up for a Hotmail or Messenger account.
UPDATE : [From Sean Lloyd] It appears that the Terms of Use with MSN Spaces grants Microsoft certain legal rights over your published work. The wording of the terms of use appears to be pretty broad.
For materials you post or otherwise provide to Microsoft related to the MSN Web Sites (a "Submission"), you grant Microsoft permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission. Microsoft may remove your Submission at any time. For each Submission, you represent that you have all rights necessary for you to make the grants in this section. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Microsoft may monitor your e-mail, or other electronic communications and may disclose such information in the event it has a good faith reason to believe it is necessary for purposes of ensuring your compliance with this Agreement, and protecting the rights, property, and interests of the Microsoft Parties or any customer of a Microsoft Party.
Microsoft responds that it is "all about granting us the right to post your content and share it out on MSN". It is anybody's guess as to what will happen if they do violate your copyright. Microsoft has not shied away from suing individuals in the past. I, for one, am planning to stay away. From Sean :
I do not plan on putting anything else on my space until this is cleared up, though. I'm a firm believer of being held to what I signed. What I signed says something more than the lawyer accounts for. Better safe than sorry, as far as I'm concerned.
