Facebook gets more evil

Per Dave Farber's IP list, Facebook has changed their TOS again. It's always said "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 [post ...]", but they allowed an escape clause: if you wanted to close your account, they'd lose the ability to repurpose your content.

That's changed, however, with the new TOS, which drops "If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire." and instead adds "The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: [nearly everything]." And, since their TOS allows passive acceptance, if you've used the service since February 4th, you've already agreed to this change: "Your continued use of the Facebook Service after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms."

And, no, you can't take them to court. You agreed not to by continuing to use their service.

More at this Consumerist post, which suggests that certain privacy settings negate this.