The highly irritating behaviour of posting "I agree" or "Me, too!" and nothing else in response to a long reasoned argument on a newsgroup of other similar forum has long been attributed to AOL users (like most other forms of bad Netiquette), and thus in some circles "AOL" has become shorthand for "Me too". --SF
"You or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to public areas of any AIM Product. However, by submitting or posting Content to public areas of AIM Products (for example, posting a message on a message board or submitting your picture for the "Rate-A-Buddy" feature), you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. Once you submit or post Content to any public area on an AIM Product, AOL does not need to give you any further right to inspect or approve uses of such Content or to compensate you for any such uses. AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating Content posted to public areas of AIM Products."
Sooo.. if you post your creations on an AOL-run message board, AOL can snarf them and use them for their marketing or whatever, and sell them to other people provided they make small changes to them first so they become derivative works - or am I misreading that? - MoonShadow
Well, yes. But they toned it down so that IM is no longer included. Plus, given the inanity of law - they actually need most of this right. Since every time a viewer goes to the forum you posted on, they are republishing your work to that viewer. And putting all the forum gumph around your text makes it a derivation. They should probably tighten it up to just the precise rights they need, but lawyers are usually trained to grab as much as they can. --Vitenka (DevilsAdvocate)
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