Recent events have convinced me that support has to be useless.
Let’s start with the AIM Terms of Service (TOS). It contains this perfectly clear segment.
Content You Post
You may only post Content that you created or which the owner of the Content has given you. You may not post or distribute Content that is illegal or that violates these Terms of Service. By posting or submitting Content on any AIM Product, you represent and warrant that (i) you own all the rights to this Content or are authorized to use and distribute this Content on the AIM Product and (ii) this Content does not and will not infringe any copyright or any other third-party right nor violate any applicable law or regulation.Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.
I draw your attention to the word “posting” and remind you that AOL has many, many forums. Clearly, posting is not the same as instant messaging. Heck, instant messages don’t even necessarily go through AOL’s servers. It is not technically possible for them to be logged, because AIM’s servers never see them!
But, somehow, this became an issue due to the black hat blogger who runs Macslash reporting it aggressively. And hey, it appeared on the web, so it must be true, right?
In response, an AOL spokesman issued this statement (in part):
The related section of the Terms of Service is called “Content You Post” and, as such, logically and legally it relates only to content a user posts in a public area of the service. If a user posts content in a public area of the service, like a chat room, message board, or other public forum, that information may be used by AOL for other purposes.
There! Now not only do we have common sense on our side, we’ve confirmed it! Should be good enough, right?
The response, from the black hat that started this mess, is as follows:
Logically and legally we disagree here. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Mr. Weinstein is lying.
Yes, you read that right. AOL is now being accused of lying for clarifying an already clear statement by a blogger who can not set aside a conspiracy theory. Further, other sources are also carrying the statement and calling it a lie, such as the ever inconsistent slashdot.
Now, it seems likely that the blogger will get his way and the Terms of Service will be amended to make this perfectly clear. He will then cry victory. But all this really proves is one thing, which I will call the OAR First Law of Public Statements:
No matter how idiot-proof you make a public statement, eventually an idiot big enough to misinterpret it will find it. And not only that, but he’ll probably be highly paranoid, delusional and aggressive about his misinterpretation.
I note that MacWorld never threw a punch in this mess. It seems the New York Times (I think it was?) was right to be critical of bloggers.
Update: The two sentence version of this reply was posted to slashdot. One funny reply:
I wouldn’t call a blogger a black hat.
Though they are both malicious by nature, the blogger requires a lot less knowledge to inflict harm upon it’s target.