Sounds great! Keep up the good work!

Do you plan to assume the copyright on any photos uploaded to your new gallery site?

Didn't there use to be a forum for comments or feedback? I scanned through the LONG list of forums but did not see one. Maybe it was pulled because every time I dropped in it was mostly filled with negative comments about the iVillage buyout.

I would be interested to know more about the proposed photo galleries. Will this feature be integrated into the current discussion threads? Hopefully it does not require the users to resize images before uploading (this seems to be a technical stumbling block for many new users...plus the required size is so small that pictures have to be small or very poor quality). I also am curious about the copyright issue. If somebody uploads a beautiful picture can iVillage use that picture in a printed magazine, online article, or for-sale library of images?

- Brent

Does this mean the old galleries are going away?

The gripe outlet...er...uh...comments forum is called Suggestions now.

"Have a suggestion for a new forum or an idea on how to improve our forums? Let us know what products, services or improvements you'd like to see on GardenWeb. Some of the best ideas come from our members -- we want to hear from you!"

Here is a link that might be useful: Suggestions?

Did this new feature die for lack of interest or
is my impression that 'very soon' means 'in about a week' in error?
Or, did it happen and I've missed it?

Nell

New galleries should be launching in the next few days. If you'd like a sneak peek and would like to upload a picture or two, we'd love to see them.

Tamara

Here is a link that might be useful: GardenWeb Galleries

Here's what the Terms of Service page says about any content you submit here. IVillage can use your photos and anything you write as they wish, including publishing them for profit.

"By submitting content, which shall include your member name, to any "public area" of the GardenWeb Network, including, but not limited to, the forums and your personal website, exchange page and journal, you grant iVillage a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, sublicense, assign, derive revenue or other remuneration from, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any Rights that may exist in such content. If you are not the creator of such content, you also warrant that the holder of any Rights, including moral rights in such content, has completely and effectively waived all such rights and validly and irrevocably granted to you the right to grant the license stated above. You also permit any visitor or member to access, display, view, store and reproduce such content solely for personal, noncommercial use."

Saypoint did everyone a favor by finding and posting this:
"Here's what the Terms of Service page says about any content you submit here. IVillage can use your photos and anything you write as they wish, including publishing them for profit."

See his previous post for details. I feel GardenWeb will have to rewrite their Terms of Service. All in agreement say Aye.

Thanks, Saypoint, and Brent's question should be answered clearly --

". . . can iVillage use that picture in a printed magazine, online article, or for-sale library of images?" --

Even though it's spelled out in the Terms of Service, most people don't read that.

Aye. I won't post any photos here unless I don't care if they use them. I wonder if this includes links you provide to a photo hosting website. The mention or your personal website leads me to believe that if you link to it, it's theirs.

Aye.

The language about "personal website" especially needs clarifying. The TOS is really pretty unsettling. Thanks for bringing it to our attention saypoint!

I tried to upload an image, but it has not shown up yet. Either it is still being processed, or they rejected it because "the powers that be" decided that a picture of a stump was not that impressive. ;-)

It appears that this new feature is completely disconnected from the forums and I don't see any way to reference an uploaded picture from a forum post. It seems like a rather useless addition to me, but what do I know. The most frequent question on every forum is "how do I upload a photo?" and I am not sure this will change.

You have to love that "moral rights" part of the statement. Also, it sounds like if I upload some copyrighted material that iVilliage is free to ignore that fact and still claim full ownership.

- Brent

So, putting together the Terms of Service with the new site, specifically the information that one "can upload directly from your computer", means that now IVillage is making it even easier for them to take possession of your personal photos. Thank you very much IVillage.

My photos and comments are nothing to be excited about and likely to be of little use to anyone beyond the scope of any discussion at hand, but I do find the TOS rather scary in a "we-own-you-now" way. And I agree that the "moral rights" part is pretty obnoxious.

As a side note, I wonder how the legality of the ubiquitous "I Agree" button on the internet is holding up in court.

Patty

Tamara, are you there? Any comment? Will I be going to
Disney now?

The difference here is 'rights' and 'ownership'. iVillage has never said that if you post a picture on this website that they now own it. The picture is yours and will always be yours. What they are saying is that they may choose to use it -- say, in an article or gallery on the site. Once again, you retain the ownership, but by posting it on the site, you grant iVillage the license to use it. This language is very standard on most websites -- you can find similar terms on Yahoo, Google, My Space, etc. -- And, yes, even on some other gardening sites. ;)

This type of agreement isn't just something you see on the internet. Pick up any newspaper or magazine and you'll find similar terms of service. Say that your local newspaper puts out a call for pictures of cute kids and you send in a picture of Junior and its published. By sending it in, you've agreed to grant that newspaper the right to 'use' it -- but, you will always be the owner of the picture.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Tamara

What the TOS says to me (and this is my personal interpretation):

If I post anything, including my name/username, my exchange list, my photos and some 'personal website' I create on "My Page" here as well as entries to any Forum, iVillage can use it and I cannot expect to be paid for such use. They can quote me. They can move my photo from some gallery to some other spot. I can still sell my own work to somebody else, if it were that good. So could they.

If I post somebody else's work, I am telling iVillage that I have a right to it and they can use it. If the real owner comes forward to claim ownership and demand pay, iV believes Real Owner should sue me, not iV because I implied I had a right to it, which right I gave to iV when I posted it.

Anybody who copies my prattle, photos, et al here may use it for pleasure with iV's blessing, but not for gain. You can't put my personal Daylily photo on your e-bay site without permission but you can put my dog's photo on your personal website because he's cute -- as long as you aren't using his picture to promote some homemade dog biscuits you're selling. You can quote my funny story in your family newsletter, but not sell it to Reader's Digest.

IMHO, that's what the TOS means to say.

Now, here's my real question:
If we post to this new gallery, can we then link to it using 'img src=' the way we use photohosting sites now to put said photo in our posts? Otherwise, what is the purpose?

Nell