“We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent we think it necessary for the Service. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.”
(Bolding is my own)
Now, I understand they need permission to reproduce your work if, say, it’s part of a file share and they need to copy it for the other computers that belong to the network. But, correct me if I’m wrong, they are saying that by backing up your files on Dropbox, they can publicly display it and they don’t need your permission. Not that I think they would. I just don’t like that they can do it at all.
Surely there is some middle ground between never copying the work (which would defeat the purpose of an internet backup) and having license to publicly display it. Is that really necessary?
Maybe this is a little paranoid, but I’m not using Dropbox anymore and I’m retracting my recommendation for it. Right now, the only one with authority to display my work is me, and I’m keeping it that way.
What do you think of these new terms of service? What do you use to back up your work?
