According to Reddit's user agreement, you own content you submit, but you give Reddit a "do whatever you want with it, even to make money off of it" license.
At the beginning of online video, YouTube started with the same "we can resell your videos and do whatever we want without asking you" clause. Vimeo didn't have that. A lot of content producers would only upload to Vimeo (vimeo also had full HD support years before YouTube). Over time, people realized they can't beat the reach/speed/search/recommendations of YouTube, so now everybody gives in and lets GooTube just do whatever they want with the content in exchange for better and more-consistent-across-platforms exposure.
Is it me or this is stupid? I mean, this is the digital world, you can make as many copies as you want, so if you give them a licence to whatever they want with it, what are your options after submitting something?
Not sure if you are saying it's stupid on Reddit's part, or the users'. For Reddit it's smart.
Licensing doesn't just mean making an exact copy.
Let's say Reddit was the one that packaged up a story posted on /r/nosleep/ and sold film rights—the user who posted that stuff would have an uphill battle to get anything from Reddit's profits on the arrangement.
But, as a user, you can still make your own deals (you still own and can license the content yourself to others), and you probably can only make that deal because of Reddit exposure.
You could stamp everyone of your posts with a CC-NC license. Since the content is yours - I don't think they can magically wave the CC-NC license on the basis that you uploaded it to their site.
IANAL but if you agreed to their terms and uploaded something then you've relicensed it to them. This is the same as those misguided souls posting copyright notices under their Facebook messages.
I mean TOS, EULAs etc only go so far. If you think they are the word of god - then I'll create a TOS on my site that says for every page view you agree to pay me $X. Then when I sue you to get the money - any judge who isn't taking mind altering drugs should throw it out.
Interestingly enough Apple also had their Safari EULA state that you couldn't install it on a PC [1]. Obviously it was never brought to court - but still I'm sure thousands of people violated the EULA.
My take is yes - someone who operates a website/service can blanket content you upload unless you explicitly state otherwise. So here is a hypothetical question - you own the copyright of the material in question. Reddit makes a copy of your reddit post for their daily feed or something - could you send a DMCA removal request? I'm sure you would say no because of the TOS - but don't you own the original copyright?
> This is the same as those misguided souls posting copyright notices under their Facebook messages.
And from what I read basically Facebook has the ability to use public posts/pictures - which makes total sense (posting the copyright notice only makes you look like a fool). If you don't want them to use it - adjust your privacy settings.
Here is an example of a ridiculous TOS [2].
> Permission is granted to freely print, unmodified, up to 200 copies
How do you know how many I printed? Perhaps I scanned copies - would those be considered prints?
If you use their service, you first have to agree to their terms. You can put any magical gobledy-gook in your text, but your 'active' (if only by clicking on a button) acceptance of their terms will hold up better in court. Same as for this text right here and the good folks at ycombinator.
Now for your own content hosted on your own site that you control, it's a whole other story.
>By submitting user content to reddit, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies, perform, or publicly display your user content in any medium and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.
How does slapping another license on it dissolve this one? They're using it under this other license that you agreed to, not the CC-NC one.
https://www.reddit.com/help/useragreement#p_17