Medium Is Changing Your Rights To Your Own Work

And I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it

UPDATE: Medium changed their new TOS. A little. Here’s the latest on the new TOS fiasco.

And there’s some more bad news. Coincidentally on the same day of the TOS fiasco, this happened:

Addendum 1: We were right, don’t try to use a disclaimer, it means nothing.

ADDENDUM 2 20/8/2020: It has been drawn to my attention that the word Sublicense is also very important. Sublicense means an agreement in which a Company grants or otherwise transfers any of the rights licensed to Company hereunder or other rights that are relevant to designing, developing, testing, making, using, or selling of Licensed Products.

So, when you take into account their brand new right to sublicense your work and their statement “on all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed without compensation to you.” there can no longer any doubt. The new TOS mean what we feared. Medium can use your work without your permission and they do not have to compensate you for it.

My latest article outlines my attempts to get Medium to answer questions about these words specifically. All of which have been ignored.

Originally posted on 18th August AEST.

Many of us have stated that we feel Medium is less than generous when it comes to compensation. But most of us accept the bargain we made with Medium because it means we have access to one of the world’s biggest blogging sites, with potentially hundreds of thousands of viewers and the possibility of going viral. It rarely works out that way, but hope springs eternal. And, of course, as writers, our main concern is having someone to read our work.

However, Medium are now taking things to whole a new level with their latest terms and conditions. A quick flash across my screen this morning indicated I should take a look at their new terms. I’m so glad I took the time to check, because I came across this perky little paragraph, which appears to be an entirely new addition:

“Unless otherwise agreed in writing, by submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the Services, you grant Medium a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid, and sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content in all media formats and distribution methods now known or later developed without compensation to you.”

New terms of service Old terms of service

The first thing I did was to comment on the new terms of service that I absolutely do not agree to these terms. My next move will be to include a paragraph on any future work stating clearly that I definitively do not agree to these terms.

I am unsure if Medium will try to insist upon these terms retroactively, so I’m also going to copy paste this rejection of their new terms on to all of my work published here. Isn’t that going to look neat and visually appealing? A great big ugly rejection of terms and services pasted all over my work.

I have submitted a request to Medium under support ticket number 518871 asking them to confirm that this will be enough to prevent any future attempts to usurp my rights to my own work.

Edited to add: Unfortunately it doesn’t look like that will be enough. It looks like by continuing to use Medium you are now agreeing to their amended terms of service which means “your disclaimer is one-sided and doesn’t override the terms of service agreement… What they are saying is, “ You own the rights to all your work and can do whatever you want with it, but so can we and we don’t have to pay you, and we can change it.” So, if you write a great story, they can take the idea, write a novel or screenplay, and never have to pay you for the money they made.”

These new terms and conditions appear to me to be contrary to the entire spirit of Medium, at its inception. I know things change and you cannot please everyone, but this is a reversal of the spirit of the site, not a qualification or an addition. The truth is that even if Medium agree not to use or alter my work without compensating me for it, this has eroded my trust.

So, the final thing I’ll be doing is starting to look for somewhere else to write, whether that be once again opening my own blog, or following up paid writing opportunities elsewhere.

If I were you, I’d consider doing the same.

Feel free to copy paste what I have written below to your own work. It may not make any difference, sadly.

Happy writing.

Alison Tennent 18th August 2020 9.26am AEST, Edited 2pm AEST Queensland Australia

Please note this disclaimer is useless. Medium will have the right to do whatever they want with your work as of 1st September if you continue to use the site.

I do not agree to Medium’s new terms and conditions as of 18th August 2020 AEST. Explicity I agree only to the original terms: “By posting content to Medium, you give us a nonexclusive license to publish it on Medium Services, including anything reasonably related to publishing it (like storing, displaying, reformatting, and distributing it). In consideration for Medium granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Medium may enable advertising on the Services, including in connection with the display of your content or other information. We may also use your content to promote Medium, including its products and content. We will never sell your content to third parties without your explicit permission.”

I do not give Medium permission to update or change the terms of service I agreed to when I joined the site. I expect the terms I agreed to when I joined the site to be upheld.

I explicitly deny Medium the rights to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivate works from, distribute, publicly perform or display my content under any name, username or likeness provided in connection with my content in any or all media format or distribution methods now known or later developed for any reason without my explicit permission. I explicitly deny Medium the right to reproduce my work under these terms or any other terms without compensation to me. I explicitly expect to be compensated when my work is used by Medium for any reason, under any terms or conditions. I reject in full the new terms and conditions and expect my work to be published only under the terms and conditions I agreed to.

Copyright Alison Tennent 2020, all rights reserved. Scottish by birth, upbringing and bloodline, Australian by citizenship. If you’re reading this anywhere but Medium, this work may have been plagiarized, please drop me a line at [email protected].