Tumblr TOS Chilling Effect

For a bit, I was posting stuff over on Tumblr and having a great time doing it. Tumblr's toolset is awesome and I really dig the way it works. But then, a few weeks ago, I eased up and eventually stopped. The reason why is this bit from the Tumblr TOS:

Subscriber acknowledges and agrees that if Subscriber uses any of the Services to contribute Subscriber Content to the Site, Tumblr will have a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, transferable right, under all of Subscriber’s intellectual property rights, to copy, cache, publish, display, perform, distribute, translate and store such Subscriber Content and to allow others to do so. To the extent allowed by law, the foregoing includes all rights of paternity, integrity, disclosure and withdrawal and any other rights that may be known as or referred to as “Moral Rights.” To the extent Subscriber retains any such Moral Rights under applicable law, Subscriber hereby ratifies and consents to any action that may be taken with respect to such moral rights by Tumblr and agrees not to assert any Moral Rights with respect thereto.

My first read of this was that it was standard "we're a hosted service and need to distribute your stuff". But, upon a later second read, the words "transferable" and "allow others to do so" stood out, and not in a good way.

It's almost certain that the intent here is to cover Tumblr's ass with regard to content distribution and reblogging. The technical aspects of the Internet do make it hard to talk about copyright licenses as each step in the process of you viewing stuff online technically makes a copy. But, the way this is written makes it an axe that chops out too much for my taste. Without an explicit, "we'll only use your stuff in these ways" clause, it becomes the typical American big-entity taking advantage of the little-guy legal document. Sure, the Tumblr folks that are in charge right now won't use this against you. But, say evil big-corp buys Tumblr, what happens then? Oh, your content is theirs to use in anyway they want.

Then, there's the clause about moral rights. Um, what? Really? In case you've never heard of moral rights before, they include the right of attribution and more.

To be totally clear. I'm super sure the Tumblr folks are cool and all. And I love their toolset. But, the legal bits that are written in that "oh, you'll never really read through all this and understand it" way are chilling. They certainly chilled my use of the service.

I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV or the Internet. You shouldn't rely on my statements to make up your own mind about what the legal stuff above means. Consult a lawyer, such as Photo Attorney, if you need to. Etc. etc. etc.