EULA
For Christmas this year, we bought our kids the Flip video recorder. On my plane ride, I was reading PC Magazine, which had an editorial blurb about users giving up their rights (forcibly) to just use a product. I am somewhat of a privacy nut, so reading that using their product gives their company unlimited rights to anything created/shared with their software made my want to return it to CostCo right away.
I sent an email to a link on their page, and was very surprised to get a response within hours. The person, who is their web director, went so far as to contact their General Counsel to find out exactly what their EULA says. The last thing I want is video of my kids ending up on a website in some advertising (for example, on their Flip product page).
I’m happy to say he was patient in listening to my questions and went back and forth over several emails. He confirmed they do not assume rights to video content produced by their customers. In fact, he even confirmed all of the videos displayed on their website were given specific permission to do so.
So..we get to keep the camera and I feel better about their product. I’m not sure where the editorial person got their information, but it was wrong (it may have to do with a specific “design” feature on one of their other cameras, but even then what they complained about was inaccurate).
I came across the following comic on XKDC (one of the best strips out there – hopefully I linked this correctly to give proper credit).