Comments on: Dropbox Online Storage Public/Shared Folders: A Word Of Caution

By: Pat

Pat — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:29:53 +0000

While I am not a lawyer, I pay attention to these things, and in general, it is very difficult to sign your rights away. If you go to an amusement park – regardless of what it says on the back of your ticket – if the safety bar on the roller-coaster breaks, the park is liable. Sort of the same deal here. By simply putting a file in a publicly accessible place, you do not abdicate your ownership/copyright on that work. This is akin to saying if you put your guitar case down on park bench and take your hand off of it, you no longer own it and anyone is free to take it. Finders keepers is not the law. Copyright can be complicated, but according to established international law, no notice of ownership need be given for copyright to apply – i.e., the old line “All Rights Reserved” is implicit.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:15:18 +0000

I want “shared public folders” – basically I want to allow my friends to be able to make changes in the folders that I have set as available publicly. Dropbox doesn’t have this yet, but they are thinking about adding that feature. Vote it up in priority here: https://www.dropbox.com/votebox/784/share-public-folder-or-make-public-folders-out-of-shared-folders

By: Hellkeepa

Hellkeepa — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:07:45 +0000

HELLo!

That depends entirely upon the laws in your country, their license, and possibly who you’re sharing those files with.

Happy syncin’!

By: Shantanu Goel

Shantanu Goel — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:22:00 +0000

@jose, yes it is illegal..

By: jose

jose — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:28:42 +0000

Hey guys what about uploading already copyrighted files into tzhe shared folder …. is it illegal for example to share my favorite mp3s ???
thanks

By: Storm

Storm — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:37:43 +0000

The EULA is changed, but only for your SHARED FOLDERS. The text regarding your PUBLIC FOLDER remains the same. Put anything there and it’s out of your hands, for others to exploit as they see fit.

I just deleted my Public folder. Will be using Apples iDisk for that.

Other than that, DropBox is a really well executed solution.

By: Tristan

Tristan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:46:35 +0000

Did you get any update on this? I’ve just started using Dropbox for work and it’s a bit of a concern.

I think people are correct in thinking that this is just to cover Dropbox incase people use the public folder for sensitive files and then want to sue dropbox.

We’ll see.

By: Shantanu Goel

Shantanu Goel — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:11:29 +0000

@Florent: Thanks for the clarification. What I think is that if nothing else, this clause brings in an ambiguity that is enough to promote widespread misuse..Maybe we should ask the dropbox guys what they think about this. I’ll try to contact them. Thanks for your comment once again..

By: Florent V.

Florent V. — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:11:11 +0000

Shantanu, actually I’m not sure this clause is valid. In most countries, giving or selling a license must be an agreement between two persons/entities. You cannot write “this is an agreement between you and me, and by this agreement you grant other persons such and such rights”. I think the whole clause is invalid and should be struck down.

I guess the Dropbox guys just tried to protect themselves, but messed up this one. There is no need for a particular license here. If I download content from someone’s Public folder on getdropbox.net, I shouldn’t get any license to do anything other than the right to use it for myself. If I redistribute the content while I don’t have the rights (through a Creative Commons license for instance, or some other agreement between me and the content owner), this is piracy. That’s how it works for content proposed by content owners anywhere on the Internet, whether on Flickr or on someone’s blog or hosting account.

Well, I guess that second paragraph is just stating the obvious.

By: Shantanu Goel

Shantanu Goel — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:12:37 +0000

@Michael: That’s the whole point. When you post on flickr, you do not transfer the rights to anyone, so if someone flicks ur pic, you can go after the person who flicked it yourself. But in dropbox’s case, you are essentially writing off your rights, so nothing can be done about it legally.
BTW, since we are on topic about flickr, pic flicking and copyrights, read this: http://blog.twilightfairy.in/2008/09/01/toi-believes-flickr-is-for-flicking/
(And yes, the person in question here did get compensation and a published public apology in the end . Now this wouldn’t be possible in dropbox’s case. I hope that makes it clear )