Trading on Spaces

Microsoft has announced it’s new web log service: Spaces, and the devil is in the details.

The ever vigilant nose of the Yellow Doggerel Democrat, Steve Bates, detects the all too common Bellevue bend in what sounded like a straight forward proposition. Microsoft has server space and wants to increase traffic and ad revenue so it parcels out space to people who want to express themselves. Blogging is a growing phenomenon on the Internet, and MS wants a piece of it, to ensure its continuing dominance in all things relating to computing.

Having dealt with Microsoft since the days of Mbasic and Z-80 cards for Apple ][‘s I felt I knew the Microsoft Version 1.0 drill: sort of worthwhile software that would be debugged by early adopters at no cost to the company and a result that was vaguely usable and loaded down with features no one could ever imagine using in real life after their entry into high school.

I anticipated tie ins to other MS products and services, probably some really annoying help function that interfered with actually using the product, and a result that would only really look right in Internet Explorer

While all that may be true, what I didn’t foresee were the terms concerning content. Steve lays it out: censorship and a loss of copyrights.

It’s not simply that they can reject your posts, nor that they will have the right to use your work without paying you, they also have the right to edit your work under their terms of use. This sounds a lot like intellectual sharecropping: you do the work and “Massa William” makes the money.

Sorry, Bill. I wouldn’t work for you if you paid me, so I certainly won’t do it for free.