MySpace Updates Music Agreement, No Longer Claims Ownership

Information culled from the MySpace Wikipedia entry.

Musicians’ rights and the user agreement
Former MySpace user agreement fine print:

“You hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services.”

Revised fine print of the user agreement:

“MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, ‘Content’) that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose.”

Good news for indie musicians on MySpace and those who care about retaining control of the re-distribution of their creative works. Bands on major labels are just as screwed as they have been for years.