The re-wording of Facebook’s terms of use has fueled a deluge of online criticism as major players in the blogosphere complain that the company has given itself a perpetual, virtually limitless right to profit from member photos and other user-submitted content.

Bloggers and reporters have seized upon one point in particular: Facebook’s elimination of a clause that had clearly ended all of the company’s rights to user material after it had been removed from their Facebook profile. On top of that, whereas the competing social networking site MySpace explains outright in its terms of use that it makes no claim of ownership to photos, video, text or anything else uploaded through the MySpace service, Facebook makes no such explicit clarification.

Thus it appears at first glance that the new Facebook terms allow the company to license or sublicense images or other content–even material that was posted and subsequently deleted from the site–and distribute it without limitation “through multiple tiers.”

Though the changes were published on Facebook Feb. 4, the potential licensing implications first gained attention Sunday after being posted on The Consumerist, a blog owned by the publishers of Consumer Reports magazine. Within hours, the new terms of service had been lambasted on dozens of blogs and mentioned on the sites of major national media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and Fox News.

Facebook responded through a message entitled, “On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information,” published this afternoon on founder Mark Zuckerberg’s blog. Zuckerberg explains that the company’s “philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant.”

While Zuckerberg’s post says that “in reality, we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want,” the idea that Facebook users own all rights to content posted on the site is mentioned solely as a “philosophy.”

Above: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2007.

“A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you,” Zuckerberg’s post read. “Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler.”

Zuckerberg also offered a partial explanation for the deletion of the clause ending Facebook’s right to use or license material once it has been removed by the user.

“When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created—one in the person’s sent messages box and the other in their friend’s inbox,” Zuckerberg writes. “Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.”

The current language drawing the most  criticism does indeed come across as sweeping:

“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 (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”

A similar clause appeared in the previous terms of service agreement, posted May 24, 2007, but it was followed by this statement:

“You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”

The two above sentences are omitted in this latest Feb. 4 edition, and on top of that a new phrase appears toward the end of the document:

“The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.”

Founded in 2004, Facebook recently surpassed MySpace in membership to become the largest social networking site on the globe. The service, which was initially only available to college students and, later, high school students, skyrocketed in popularity after becoming available to the general public. Facebook now boasts more than 175 million registered users worldwide.

Click here to read Facebook’s current Terms of Service.

Click here to read an archived version of Facebook’s previous Terms of Service.

Click here to read Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s response to the complaints.

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