@KKHH: I can help. Will send you a message about this. Apologies for the inconvenience.

@rwpark: Good catch. Thank you for the input. Change made.

You will have a 3-dimensional web projected on your wall that will respond to only your commands that will show all of your assets and profiles (etc) and how they are linked together. When someone buys something through your affiliate link or from your e-bay account, it will light up and you will be able to see a representation of the money coming from their account and into your pay-pal account and into your bank account and into your credit card account. When a website is cached by google, your macros will sniff it for the digital signature of your work and if they are using your work, it will send them a polite e-mail and light up differently. I wonder who has that already?

@Clay: Good point. From what I understand, the CC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode) means that you as the original creator of content have put your content into the public domain by sharing it publically on the WiserEarth site but only to be used in an attributed and non-commercial manner. That means that NCI as the sponsor of the WiserEarth project would not be able to 'sell' your content, nor would there likely be any value to selling your content since anyone can now use it. So I think that solves the 'NCI goes crazy' scenario. What do you think?

 

There is a pro-bono lawyer who works with NCI from time to time and we can check this with him over the common month or two.

Hmm... legal stuff has always been tricky, but let's try to figure this out as fellow users of WiserEarth.

 

Q: The NCI license didn't say whether I grant any permissions for the use of my stuff by accepting the terms.

 

A: I think this ToU implies that you do grant permission to both NCI and the WiserEarth community to use your work.

 

XIII. License to User Content
By posting or otherwise making available Content on the Service, you agree to and hereby do grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, NCI and the users of the Service an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully sublicensable, fully paid up, worldwide license to use, copy, publicly perform, digitally perform, publicly display and distribute such Content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such Content.

 

Afterwards, NCI License comes into play. Perhaps the legal form of the Creative Commons license can make things a bit clearer: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode

 

 

Q: It would be cool if changes to the terms were required to be explained before a person "used the service" again.

 

A: Yes, that would probably be nice. But by accepting this Terms of Use in the first place, you in fact have agreed to the second article:

 

II. Modifications
We reserve the right, at our discretion, to change, modify or otherwise alter these TOU or the Service at any time without prior notice. Such modifications shall become effective immediately upon the posting of the new terms or upon implementation of the changes to the Service. You agree to review these TOU on a regular basis to keep yourself apprised of any changes. Your continued use of the Service after any modifications indicates your acceptance of these TOU and the Service, as modified.... (cut-off here)

 

And the fact that the watchlist exist to make it easier for users to "review these TOU on a regular basis" seems good enough for me. Perhaps we should add a link to the watchlist feature somewhere in there. Otherwise, it's probably best not to agree to the terms of use in the first place (during sign up process).

 

 

Q: It would be cool if websites could somehow assist with publication and copyrights. That would make it way easier to share content instead of all the waiting that has to go on to get something copyrighted. If I published an article in a newspaper, I could use that as proof that I published it...

 

A: In a way, WiserEarth assist you already by providing the space to publish, a license (creative commons) to provide you with the some-rights-reserved type of copyrights, and a username linked to you by your email and a password you choose. No waiting is needed. Do you have something else in mind? If all-rights-reserved type of copyrights is what you need, then WiserEarth probably is not the best place to publish your work. I imagine if any proof is needed, then that password would be it. No one else know but whoever created c2designkitchen user account. And if that "whoever" is indeed the real Clayton Cole, my amateur legal knowledge tells me that you can probably use that ("whoever" is indeed Clayton Cole by  knowing the password of c2designktchen WiserEarth account) in legal dealings concerning work you posted in WiserEarth. Again, what you want seems more suited to the traditional all-rights-reserved copyright. I think the spirit WiserEarth is trying to cultivate is the selfless free sharing of knowledge that can help make our world a better place.

 

Thanks for asking these questions Clay. Helps me (and hopefully others too) to understand the TOU better. Keep em coming.

 

Cheers,

Bowo

Hey Clay,

 

Will try to answer from what I understand. Others, please correct me if I misunderstood.

 

Q: So, anything that I add to the site can not be sold by anybody without my express permission? Do I grant permission for NCI or anybody else to sell content that I add by accepting the terms?

A: WiserEarth employs Creative Commons Attirbution-Noncommercial 3.0 License, so, nothing commercial in nature should be performed to the content any user provide in WiserEarth. See section of the XII. NCI License of this article for more details.

 

Q: Does 'using the service' include reading the terms?

A: Yes

 

Q: Is there a way to be notified every time the terms change before I visit the site?

A: Add this article to your watchlist, link your watchlist to your email, set the alert frequency to "As it happens".

 

Q:  If I create any works that I intend to be public, does posting them here place them under the Creative Commons license?

A: Yes

 

Q: If I posted something here and my account was deactivated and I wanted to sue somebody for violating the Creative Commons license protecting my work, would NCI be able to support my position that I had published the work under the 3.0 license?

A: Not really qualified to answer this question. But I suppose saying that "such deactivated user have indeed created this content in the past here in WiserEarth" does not seem to be a difficult thing to do. Problem is with online accounts, how do we know it is created by a real person called Clay? i.e. How do we know that user c2designkitchen is in fact Clay in real life? WiserEarth does not have this identity check/verification mechanism in place, and I don't see the likelihood of it implemented any time in the future.  And here's a relevant sentence in section XII on NCI License: "NCI's grant of the NCI License to you does not create or imply any contractual or extracontractual liability on the part of NCI or any of its licensors, employees, sponsors, members or other users."

 

Q: If I have to use the service to read the terms, does that makes me agree to them before knowing what they are?

A: You can read the terms prior to joining WiserEarth, and during the sign up process. Log-out and reload this page or click Join WiserEarth button in the homepage to see what I mean.

 

Does this answer your Qs?

Bowo

So, anything that I add to the site can not be sold by anybody without my express permission? Do I grant permission for NCI or anybody else to sell content that I add by accepting the terms? Does 'using the service' include reading the terms? Is there a way to be notified every time the terms change before I visit the site?

 

 If I create any works that I intend to be public, does posting them here place them under the Creative Commons license? If I posted something here and my account was deactivated and I wanted to sue somebody for violating the Creative Commons license protecting my work, would NCI be able to support my position that I had published the work under the 3.0 license?

i thought the required age for registration had been bumped up to eighteen and not thirteen...?

Great document.