View source for LJ TOS

[[Image:AngryBook.jpg|thumb|The LJ ToS is kept in a secret book bound in human skin known as the [[Bruce Campbell|NecroTOSicon]].]]

The LiveJournal Terms of Service was originally word for word ripped off from one of [[Yahoo!]]'s. Though written in legalese it is easier to understand than many click-through EULAs. Its words often completely conflict with the [[secret policy document]] that [[LJ Abuse]] uses to enforce the TOS. This leads many to believe it is a mysterious and subjectively enforced thing. Its inconsistent and arbitrary enforcement by LJ Abuse has caused somewhat of an exodus from [[LiveJournal]] including such [[internet celebrity|internet celebrities]] as [[jameth]].  

[[LJ Abuse]] likes to claim the LJ TOS protects LJ from legal liability. However, none of the [[LJ Abuse]] staffers has studied law and obviously don't understand law; although Brad's mom likes to watch Matlock repeats. Neither the TOS nor the [[secret policy document]] have ever been reviewed by an actual attorney.

Upon the [[Livejournal_Buyout|buyout]] of LiveJournal by Six Apart [[Brad]] had this to say:

<blockquote>
<p>Why is the TOS and privacy policy changing?</p>
<p>'''Our old TOS and privacy policies apparently sucked''', from a lawyer point-of-view. '''We never had lawyers create or really even review the old ones... they were just a hodge-podge of misc lawyer-sounding things people had collected over time.''' A lot of the things that were changed are actually now better for the users. We just needed to clean things up.</p>
</blockquote>

== Specific passages ==
One of the most alarming, and therefore best sections of the LJ TOS is where it specifies that you agree to allow the service to own your content, at which point it may choose to resell that content to you, at its leisure.
From '''XIV. JOURNAL CONTENT''':

<ol>
<li value="4">LiveJournal reserves the right, without limitation except by law, to serve any user [[Content]] on the web, through the downloadable clients and otherwise. LiveJournal also reserves the right, without limitation, to resell any portion of a user's LiveJournal back to that individual;</li>
</ol>

==External Links==
*[http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml Current LJ TOS]
*[http://cvs.livejournal.org/browse.cgi/ljcom/htdocs/inc/legal-tos.diff?r1=1.4&r2=1.5&f=h A comparison of the SixApart modifications to the TOS and the original LJ TOS]




{{livejournal}}[[Category:LJ Drama]]