Adobe Updates Terms for Photoshop Express

On April 3rd Adobe updated their Terms of Use for the online Photoshop Express service. The terms have been greatly modified from their original and now are more in line with what is "expected" from a photsharing service.

The language has also been substantially "dumbed down" and while it still contains "legalease", laymen language has been added in parentheses to provide clarity.

Adobe also moved the important parts into the first terms of service page (instead of breaking it up into two separate locations).

I have cut out the new section and bolded and underlined the important changes below:

6. Use of Your Content
This section hereby replaces Section 8(a) ("Use of Your Content") of the General Terms.

• By Adobe
  Adobe does not claim ownership of Your Content. However, we do need certain rights from you, with respect to Your Content, in order to operate the Service and in order to enable you to do all the things this Service affords you the ability to do. Therefore, with respect to Your Content, you grant Adobe a worldwide (because the internet is global), royalty-free (meaning we do not owe you any money), nonexclusive (meaning you are free to license Your Content to others) fully sublicensable (so that we can permit our affiliates, subcontractors and agents to deliver the Service on our behalf) license to use, reproduce and modify Your Content solely for the purposes of operating the Service and enabling your use of the Service. With respect to Your Shared Content, you additionally grant Adobe the rights to distribute, publicly perform and publicly display Your Shared Content (in whole or in part) for the sole purposes of operating the Service and enabling your use of the Service and to sublicense Your Shared Content to Other Users subject to the limitations of Section 7 below. These limited licenses do not grant Adobe the right to sell or otherwise license Your Content or Your Shared Content on a stand alone basis. Further, you may terminate Adobe's right to distribute, publicly perform and publicly display Your Shared Content by making it no longer shared. You may terminate the remainder of Adobe's rights by removing Your Content from the Service. (Detailed instructions on how to do these things can be found at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=74& catid=684&threadid=1351324&enterthread=y). Upon removal of Your Content from the Service or upon making Your Shared Content no longer shared, Adobe shall have a reasonable time to cease use, distribution and/or display of Your Content. However, you acknowledge and agree that Adobe shall have the right to keep archived copies of Your Content.
• By Other Users
  You hereby grant Other Users a worldwide (because the internet is global), royalty-free (meaning that Other Users do not owe you any money), nonexclusive (meaning you are free to license Your Content to others) license to view, download, print, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display Your Shared Content subject to the limitations in Section 7. If you do not wish to grant these rights in Your Shared Content then do not share Your Content with Other Users. While you have the ability to remove Your Content from the service and/or the public areas within the Service and thus prevent future licenses from being granted, you acknowledge and agree that once Your Shared Content has been shared, Adobe can neither monitor nor control what Other Users do with it. (Detailed instructions on how to remove Your Content from the Service and/or the public areas within the Service can be found at http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumid=74& catid=684&threadid=1351324&enterthread=y).

The entire section (b) is new and additional restrictions on the use of the public content you upload has also been added to protect you.

While I have cut and pasted here what I think to be the most important changes to the Terms of Use I encourage you to take a few minutes and read through it.

I think a lot of further headaches can be avoided if Adobe provided users the ability to chose the licensing level of their individual photographs much like Flickr provides their users the ability to move from fully protected copyright to a broader Creative Commons alternative.