Medium’s New Terms and a Radical Change We Didn’t See Coming
Plot twist! (and who gets killed off)
We’ve been given notice, most of us. Medium is changing their terms effective September 1, 2020.
There’s a lot of Chicken Little’s running around shrieking that the sky is falling. Omg, this is going to be the end of Medium. The end!
Nope. Not even close.
Medium will be just fine. But you need to know how to read the writing on the wall. Figure out what the changes to the terms portent, if you will.
The winds of change are blowing, my friends. It’s a radical change we didn’t see coming.
First, let’s discuss the changes. Then, who will be affected.
Under the old terms, Medium agreed not to sell our content. That‘s going away — for some of us.
Under the old terms, Medium was an open platform for writers, where we owned our content. Medium promised they’d never sell our content without explicit permission. See?
Old Terms: valid to Aug 31, 2020…
You own the rights to the content you create and post on Medium…In consideration for Medium granting you access to and use of the Services, you agree that Medium may enable advertising on the Services…We may also use your content to promote Medium... We will never sell your content to third parties without your explicit permission. [full old terms here]
Okay? So — Medium started as an open platform for writers. Write what you want, and you own it. Medium won’t sell it without explicit permission.
Here’s the new terms…
New Terms: effective Sept. 1, 2020
You retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the Services.
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.
ALSO
We also retain the right to create limits on use and storage and may remove or limit content distribution on the Services. [full new terms here]
Sublicensable license… those words have a lot of writers terrified. Not just that Medium will use their writing without compensation, but that they can license it to third parties and create derivative works, too.
We’ll come back to that…
Top level writers will not be affected…
While the new terms didn’t say that outright, and they can’t, they’ve made provision for an exception in 5 handy words…
Unless otherwise agreed in writing,
Do you really think Medium is going to sell or sub-license Jessica Valenti’s writing without her permission? Or Gary Vaynerchuk’s? Or any of the people who have 30K or 150K readers and big platforms off Medium?
Think again, my friends.
Unless otherwise agreed in writing means Medium is free to hold separate agreements with writers they choose. We don’t know what those agreements will entail. Mutually beneficial to Medium and the writer.
Obviously.
If there’s a separate agreement, in writing, those terms won’t apply.
Medium can make whatever deals they want with the established and popular writers. They can agree not to distribute their content. Or they can agree to distribute it with shared compensation. That’s their call.
You can bet the top writers won’t be at any risk of having content “distributed” without compensation. The folks running Medium aren’t dumb. The change in terms is brilliantly strategic, if you think about it.
The elite and hand-picked writers won’t have to leave…
If Medium said hey, we’ll find distribution for your writing and share the profit, a lot of writers would be over the moon.
Wouldn’t you?
What do writers struggle with most? Marketing and distribution. Anyone who writes for a living would be over the moon to have someone else take over that part of being a writer. So they can focus on writing.
Also? “Unless otherwise agreed in writing”means both parties.
You can’t just say you don’t agree. That’s in the new terms, too. The act of posting content after Sept. 1 constitutes agreement with the terms. If you post content, you agree to the terms. If you don’t agree, don’t post any content.
As a writer, you can’t exempt yourself from the terms. Only Medium can do that. All you can do is pack up your ball and bat and go home.
Low quality writers will be hit. Hard.
A lot of people are freaking out thinking Medium wants to sell their content. Omg, that’s what that sub-license thing means, right? Omg, they can sell my work or create derivative works, right? Omg. Omg.
Technically — that’s what it says. Yes. But honestly? To me, it smells less like robbery and more like RAID.
RAAAAID!!! Ants don’t walk, they run!
Look, if we’re going to talk, we have to be honest. You think publications have a problem dealing with crap content? Imagine what it’s like to be Medium.
You ever think about Medium’s reputation as a whole?
There’s a lot of bad writing here. A. Lot. Sorry to be so blunt. People who can’t string a sentence together to save their life. People who act like Medium is their diary. Blunt truth — typing and writing are not the same.
Honestly, you think Medium wants that stuff? Probably not.
I’m an editor at Illumination and we can’t even get writers to consistently credit a damn image properly, much less follow the curation guide.
There’s people posting excerpts from public domain books, for gosh sakes. What is wrong with these people? I don’t know. I guess the idea of getting paid looms larger than the concept of quality.
There’s people whining on Facebook about not being curated, but when you load the article, grammarly lights up like a Christmas tree.
Not to mention the writers who complain about Medium being a big ripoff because they’re earning pennies. But when you look — they have 8 stories. And honestly? They’re not great. Didn’t even get curated.
All of those bottom end writers are the writing equivalent of people who go on American Idol or The Voice and can’t carry a tune to save their life.
Taste is subjective, but Dunning Kruger is real and it lives here among us.
For those people, there’s 2 provisions in the new terms. Medium can figure out how to do something with their content — or limit their use. Because that’s the part of the terms no one seems to have noticed.
The right to limit use.
Stuck in the middle with you?
There’s a scene in Reservoir Dogs where dude’s dancing around with a knife while Stuck in the Middle with You plays in the background. Billy Bob’s sounds of the seventies. Know it?
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right here I am stuck in the middle with you
And then he cuts the guy up. It’s brutal. Hard to watch.
There’s a lot of strong writers here that are not counted among the elite. People who have a loyal following, but they’re not the shining stars with 50K readers and a portfolio that includes writing for Medium publications.
They will be the fallout.
They won’t be offered special agreements, in writing. They won’t be offered terms that are more amenable or shared distribution opportunities.
Some will stay. For the exposure.
It’s the artist’s dilemma, isn’t it? Everyone wants writers and artists to work for “exposure.”
The terms don’t say Medium will rip us off. They do say they’ll credit.
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
That will be enough to keep some of the middling folk here. Hoping they do get distributed, even if it’s unpaid. For the recognition. Like guest blogging.
Others will just quietly leave. And that’s sad. And a little tragic.
A radical new direction for Medium?
Nothing stays the same forever. The only constant in life is change.
To me, this change feels like Medium taking out the trash. Sorry to be so blunt. But there’s a lot of it here. That reflects on Medium as a whole.
They will lose many paying members, for sure. Any writer that doesn’t want to write under the new terms likely won’t continue paying for membership.
Medium will need to recoup that loss.
Mutually beneficial content distribution for top writers might fill that hole nicely. Maybe even better than nicely.
Top writers will stay. Mid and bottom level writers will either leave, or may have their usage limited. Or up their game. Who knows. Time will tell.
When the dust settles, there will be more top level writers and less of the atrociously bad writing that reflects on Medium as a whole.
I don’t know. I’m guessing. But that’s sure what it sounds like to me.