Note: this post has since become redundant. See: Do go there
There’s been a fair amount of buzz around the launch of Terapad. It’s got a lot of great features that would normally commend it to the business startup community – especially e-commerce integration and a really nice and easy interface. As usual, the PRs are all over it. Stuart gives a run down of features and Neville had a peek at the copyright retention clause in the Terms & Conditions. He says:
Heavyweight conditions here, especially those relating to Stephan Tual Ltd’s rights to materials provided by users. Some businesses may not be too comfortable with this one in particular.
Neville, you’re way too kind.
Stephen Tual Ltd retain ALL rights to do anything they like with your content. Including data you input. In other words they can use your attention data anyway they see fit. No freaking way. If you are in business or advising on this, don’t go there. There are enough problems with fair usage in the blog world without handing over your copyright as part of an agreement to use a paid for service. Sam, who runs TechCrunch UK didn’t pick this up.
It’s actually a bit bizarre because the site offers PayPal and other forms of integration, including e-commerce. So if you set up a webshop, the company can grab your sales stats for its own purposes – allegedly. But hang on – who enters that data? Buyers. So is it their data, yours or Stephen Tual Ltd’s? I’m no lawyer but it’s sufficiently iffy for me to err on the side of caution. Stay away until this mess is sorted out.
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