The Dropbox Terms Kerfuffle

Seems like everybody got their panties in a twist the past few days, after Dropbox announced a revised Terms of Service. Everybody went berzerk when they read:

By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service. 

By reading this, some people thought it meant that they now owned everything you posted to your Dropbox and that they could use your files as they please. Keep in mind that Dropbox is an american company and that they must cover their asses legally or the company would be put in jeopardy.

Now, let’s be clear about what this means, since a lot of other services have the same terms. Basically, what they’re saying is that they need the user to give them a license in order for them to manipulate the files you post there.

  • Worldwide: since a lot of Dropbox users are from abroad, the license must be granted worlwide.
  • Non-exclusive: other services may be able to use the same files.
  • Royalty-free: or you could ask them for a fee for them to manipulate your files.
  • Sublicenseable: they have to grant this license to 3rd parties that manage their services for instance.
  • Use, copy: in order for you to be able to copy the files to your iPad or iPhone app.
  • Prepare derivate works: when you use their file viewer they have to convert different file formats into a flash file. Or to generate thumbails of the files.
  • Publicly display: for when you put your files in a public folder.

As you can see, nothing dodgy here. People just have to realise that when they use services like this, they have to have the right to manipulate the files you put there in order for you to use the service. Almost every service who allows you to post files must have this kind of legalese in their terms of service.

So move along, nothing to see here.