Andy sez, “Our local Fox affiliate in DC has been plugging their new blogging tool on air lately, inviting the public to use it. It’s one of the first cases I’ve heard of in which a TV news station is doing this, but of course, there had to be a catch in the fine print.”
You agree that any content you post becomes the property of FIM [Fox Interactive Media]. You understand and agree that FIM and its parent and affiliated companies may use, publish, copy, sublicense, adapt, edit, distribute, publicly perform, display and delete the content you post as they see fit. This right will terminate at the time you remove such content from the Site. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a back-up or residual copy of the content posted by you to the Site may remain on the FIM servers after you have removed such content from the Site, and FIM retains the rights to those copies.
If at any time you are not happy with the Forums or object to any material within the Forums, your sole remedy is to stop using them.
Now, it’s clear to me that Fox — or anyone who hosts others’ words — needs to know that the people who post the material on its site won’t turn around and sue because the site is hosting their words. But as with all non-negotiated, crammed-down-your-throats “agreements,” Fox goes so far beyond this as to make it clear that the lawsuits they want to guard against aren’t the frivolous ones, but rather the ones that might arise from them actually ripping you off.
(Thanks, Andy!)