Medium’s New Terms and Conditions Appear to be Taking a Huge Advantage of Its Members

I could be wrong, and I hope I am. Otherwise, I feel betrayed.

Imagine if you will that you are a huge Hollywood producer who makes blockbuster movies. Imagine that people send you so many unsolicited manuscripts you decide to put a disclaimer on your website that says the following:

“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

What does it mean? Well, here is MY interpretation. This is not legal advice or meant to actionable analysis. This is just how I read it.

“Unless otherwise agreed in writing,”

My belief is this is Medium’s way to keep highly productive and popular writers who draw thousands of reads and potential new subscribers. I imagine Medium offering those writers a contract that articulates extremely favorable terms to stay, including NOT using their content without proper payment, using Medium’s contacts to get them published elsewhere, and an NDA(nondisclosure agreement).

“by submitting, posting, or displaying content on or through the Services,”

Self-obvious. This means if you continue to submit articles to Medium and any publication on here. . .

“you grant Medium a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, and sublicensable license”

This appears to give Medium a sublicensable license(permission to allow others to use your content, including themselves) that is nonexclusive (you keep your rights to the content but share them with Medium)that is royalty-free (does not require them to pay you any money made off of their use or licensing of your material) and is worldwide(general waiver of all rights to sue if they use it in another country or you are writing and submitting to another country). . .

“to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your content”

Yep. This means they can do whatever they want with your content, including “modify, adapt. . .create derivative works from(read screenplays, books, series, podcasts, whatever).

“and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your content”

This appears to mean that your name will still be associated with the product. It could be a concern because if they adapt or modify the original content in such a way that it makes it bad, it sticks to you.

“in all media formats and distribution methods, now known or later developed”

Again, ANY format: print, web, podcasts, movies, and, of course, the famous “and whatever is invented in the future that we know nothing about.”

“without compensation to you.”

Hmmm? I wonder what this means? Oh, yeah. It means they won’t pay you one goddamn cent for using YOUR work! In other words, you are now paying Medium for the privilege of them legally pirating your work to make money off of without them paying you a dime!

Now, I probably don’t have to worry about them stealing my work. It’s probably not good enough. But some of you are awesome writers.

Also, be aware of this little critter: By clicking your consent (e.g. “Continue,” “Sign-in,” or “Sign-up,”) or by using our Services, you agree to these Terms, including the mandatory arbitration provision and class action waiver in the Resolving Disputes; Binding Arbitration Section.

Two things: 1) When that little box popped up on my screen, I hit continue, thinking it would send me to more information. Instead, it just disappeared. After searching for the terms, I found them and, in the above paragraph, I realized by clicking “Continue” I had inadvertently agreed to the new terms.

In addition, it says “by using our Services” you agree to these terms.

Well, they got us. Obviously, its every person's decision whether to continue to pay and use Medium. Personally, I am going to keep using it for a while to read the content and see where this goes. However, I am going to be careful what I write, and probably keep it simple with a link to my substack (unless they change those terms, too) where you can read my best stuff.

This is my interpretation. Read the terms yourselves and see how you read them. I have asked the legal department of Medium to write an article explaining these terms publicly and in simple terms.

Remember, this is a private website and they can do whatever they want. We can either accept and keep writing here or not. Here is another of their terms:

Termination

You’re free to stop using our Services at any time. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the Services with or without notice.

Let’s see how well they respond if they even do.

Brought to the light by Alison Tennent’s article, Medium Is Changing Your Rights to Your Own Work. Thank you, Alison.

Chuck Roast tries to write Satire and Humor. Sometimes other stuff, too. But one thing he likes is comments from readers to interact with. Please feel free to leave a comment, Or, if you write your own story, please tag me. I’d love to read them and comment back to you.

PS: If you enjoyed this story, here’s a subtle push towards my newsletter. When you sign up with your email, I’ll send you some original, never before published content, and some links to my Medium stuff as soon as I finish with this medical crap. Thanks to Kristi Keller for the inspiration for the wording of this blurb.