[iDC] Terms of Agreement: The Internet as Playground and Factory
Christian Fuchs
christian.fuchs at sbg.ac.at
Tue Jun 16 11:55:50 UTC 2009
Dear all,
I agree with Korinna that the issue of the terms of use is a complex
power problem. And I disagree with Cynthia that it makes sense to write
down reasonable terms of use for social networking sites or other
Internet platforms.
The problem is that the social relation between Internet companies and
users is one of fundamental inequality that is structured by class
power. It is an inequality in the power to define the terms of use that
is based on corporate power. Strategies such as the commenting on terms
of use now offered by Facebook are undemocratic legitimatization
strategies. The corporate player defines the rules and the users are
allowed to comment. This does not sound like participation, it sounds
like plebiscitary power. It somehow reminds me of a political model with
the name Volksgemeinschaft that was popular some 70 years ago.
There is an intrinsic capitalistic motivation of Internet corporations
to commodify users and user data in order to accumulate capital. As long
as there is capitalism, there will be economic surveillance and the
self-set enlightenment goal of attaining privacy for individuals will
always be negated by corporate interests and resulting practices. This
is like a negative dialectic of the enlightenment of Web 2.0.
The only reasonable thing to do is in my opinion to work towards the
abolishment of capitalism and to support and engage in anti-corporate
class struggle. It is an illusion to think that consumers can negotiate
"fair" terms of use with Internet corporations. This is a false liberal
illusion of reforming capitalism and of consumer sovereignty. An
alternative is in my opinion to build and support non-commercial,
non-corporate social networking sites and "Web 2.0" platforms as a form
of anti-corporate struggle. It is not about reforming Facebook, MySpace
etc - it is about engaging in a class struggle that creates viable
alternatives to these platforms so that corporate SNS will in the end
vanish. As long as such corporate platforms exist and people use them,
there will be problems with corporate surveillance, privacy, etc. I am
not optimistic that much will be done against corporate power, but I am
sure that something needs to be done.
Best, Christian
Korinna Patelis schrieb:
> Hi,
>
> Reading the post below as well as numerous papers on terms of service
> and so on in academic journals, i feel that focusing on the actual
> literal terms of service or privacy when we discuss ownership and
> content overshadows the more general problems with content ownership
> and content structure in social media. I dont feel the problem with
> all the user generated content living in commercialised social media
> spaces should be approached as a contractual issue between users and
> companies. It is a far more complicated and indeed far more abstract
> problem then that. The power of a commercial company like facebook
> cannot be reduced to its power to provide its users with the terms of
> use it wants. At the same time the actual terms of service are sign of
> that power.
>
> So i feel it woulld be usefull to contextualise disussionss on
> contracts with discussions of the power of commercial media and above
> all with debates on the structures of representations of social media
> and the power to determine these. I understand this might seem obvious
> and self evident but I think that its important to constantly reflect
> on commerial power if we dont want to become to legalistic.
>
> To put this in user terms: that facebook wont allow me to dislike
> something a friend has done, or that i cant have enemies on my
> profile determines the content i will upload in ways more intersting
> than the actual terms of service. And i think that we need to address
> such determination at the same time as we address the problem of who
> owns my content
>
> Thanks
>
> Korinna Patelis (www.aueb.gr/users/patelis
> <http://www.aueb.gr/users/patelis>)
>
> korinna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Cynthia Beth Rubin <mailto:cbrubin at risd.edu>
> *To:* idc at mailman.thing.net <mailto:idc at mailman.thing.net>
> *Cc:* Cynthia Beth Rubin <mailto:cbrubin at risd.edu>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, June 16, 2009 2:56 AM
> *Subject:* [iDC] Terms of Agreement: The Internet as Playground
> and Factory
>
> I want to return to the issue of ownership of posts on web sites.
>
> Would it be possible to use this discussion to define reasonable
> terms of agreement for users on all social networking sites?
>
> I do believe that this is possible, because of a real-life
> experience with changing Terms of Agreement. The alumni
> association of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, signed an
> agreement with iModules to provide a kind of "Facebook" experience
> for those of us who are alums. When some of read the "Terms of
> Agreement", it turned out that we agreeing to give everything
> away. Some of us freaked and asked for new terms (we worked
> together to write them). It worked. Quite honestly, I suspect
> that the ridiculous terms were written by attorneys with little
> understanding of social networking sites. No one at iModules
> thought that we were wrong to ask for new terms.
>
> Below are some phrases from the current Terms of Agreement on the
> Antiochians.org site (our alumni site -- and yes -- we are still
> in existence)
>
>
> 7. Content submitted to this site
> We do not assert any ownership over user content; rather, as
> between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in
> these Terms and Conditions, you retain full ownership of all
> of your content and any intellectual property rights or other
> proprietary rights associated with your content. . . .
>
> xxxxxxxxxx(lots of stand stuff) - xxxxxxxxxxx
>
> If you wish to grant other users or the general public
> additional licenses to your content, you may include such
> terms with your content such as:
> Usage granted under Creative Commons License
> http://creativecommons.org
>
>
>
> Cynthia Beth Rubin
> http://CBRubin.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--
- - -
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Christian Fuchs
Associate Professor
Unified Theory of Information Research Group
University of Salzburg
Sigmund Haffner Gasse 18
5020 Salzburg
Austria
christian.fuchs at sbg.ac.at
Phone +43 662 8044 4823
http://fuchs.icts.sbg.ac.at
http;//www.uti.at
Editor of
tripleC - Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation | Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society
http://www.triple-c.at
Fuchs, Christian. 2008. Internet and Society: Social Theory in the Information Age. New York: Routledge.
http://fuchs.icts.sbg.ac.at/i&s.html
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