yes that's right. Tom is a liar and Rupert Murdock bought Myspaace in July 05 for $629m.

check out this:

MySpace May Be Satan
Seriously, let’s chat about MySpace. (And no, I don’t mean MY Myspace, I just mean MySpace in general.) Have you noticed how it’s all the sudden everywhere? These things happen fairly regularly… something is introduced, co-opted by a small group, spreads via word-of-mouth, reaches epic proportions, and then, magically and suddenly it seems, it’s everywhere all at once. I saw a MySpace compilation CD in Wal-Mart last week.

And the music aspect is something I want to hit on (in a non-sexual way.) I spent some time reading through their Terms of Service (T.O.S.) a few weeks ago. You know, that big, long list of rules and regulations that you oh-so-carefully labor over before you say “I accept” and start using a website? It started to scare me, and then my friend Charlie posted about it, too, so I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about. Especially the same little nugget Charlie posted on:

By posting Content on any public area of MySpace.com, you automatically grant as well as represent and warrant that you have the right to grant to MySpace.com, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information and content to MySpace.com and that MySpace.com has the right to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. (emphasis mine)

So, in layman’s terms, if you post it on MySpace, they own it. Forever. And you don’t. They can sell it, or do anything else with it, and you’ve given them the right to. Oh, and by the way, if they DO, they get the royalties for it, not you. Your property ceases to be your property according to the MySpace T.O.S.

Granted, if your intellectual property (music, photos, words, etc.) was copyrighted prior to posting on MySpace, you MIGHT have a case, should they ever decide to start enforcing their T.O.S. and using your work for their purposes, but even so… this is scary stuff considering the volume of users who (like most of us) just agree to terms online without knowing what they are.

Suckers. All of us.

and...:
My Space - Owns You?
Written by BossHog
Thursday, 15 December 2005
We rarely post news from blogs, but this one kinda hits home for most visitors to House Of Gigs so I thought it important to get it out there.

Basically, someone went and actually read the Terms Of Service on My Space and learned something very unnerving for artists.... They may very well own any content you post on the site forever.

Would it hold up in court? Ehhh, I am not sure. It could, however, really suck for you if Rupert Murdock (you did know News Corp. owns My Space now, right?) decided to start selling CDs with your content - odds are you would not see any cash from it unless you brought them to court.

I, personally, don’t think that this is actually the plan, but it does point out the need to read and verify everything you sign/use as an artist. As an artist, the only commodity you own is your “rights”, and that needs to always be protected.

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