Nice move. All those hot cyber chats would make a pretty good book.

pwned?

www.jabber.org

Not what I wanted to hear. My company uses AIM for a lot of informal internal chatter. I thought this was a fake or an exaggeration, but apparently it's quite accurate.

Niomi

I would like to take this opportunity to state that I am in no way affliated with the Jabber Instant Messaging system. However, I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone since AIM sucks donkey balls. Trillian is a good program too.

I use GAIM: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/

with GAIM encryption plugin: http://gaim-encryption.sourceforge.net/

Only downside is it only works if both sides have the plugin though...

A good all-in-one chat program for IM/ICQ/MSN/etc though. I like it a lot better than Trillian at least.

Why should anyone expect less from AOL?

.....farked?

booyaa

hhahah! oh wait.

Farked. Anyone care to explain?

farked? someone post up teh info?

instant messaging is so 1990
(Just discovered the magic of Skype)

If the server can't handle Fark, what are the odds that the server will be able to handle r3d h0t cyba?

not farked... very....very...slow.

obviously I need to say that this is farked or else I am worthless...

/worthless anyway

just go http://www.aim.com/tos/tos.adp and read it. It's around the part where it says ....

You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses.

in the Content you post section....

Slashdot has the data. Feel free to fark them.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/11/2359226&from=rss

Although I personally stopped using AIM when I read about this, you have to consider the ammount of noise they'd have to sift through to find anything useful. I can't imagine they'd bother sorting through the massive number of messages that go through their network (Much of that being total encrypted noise) to find anything of use. Also, I don't think the privacy issue is that big of a deal, since you should never expect anything sent by plaintext to be private. The issue here is that you're granting them "the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium."

for those who mention GAIM, wouldn't this TOS be inherent with the AIM Screenname, not just the software?

1.) http://www.jabber.org
2.) http://gaim.sourceforge.org

Explanation of what's changed:
http://www.benstanfield.com/thrash/2005/03/aol_eavesdrops_.html

Link to tos:
http://www.aim.com/tos/tos.adp

/Needs to learn how to code popping/linking.

yep, I'm outta there. no way I'm using it, adless via trillian or not. "You waive any right to privacy" just rubs me the wrong way, FOR SOME REASON!

GAIM is by far the ugliest program of all AIM softwares. I saw it on a computer once, figured i'd give it a try... and then logged out and went onto AIM Express instead. More of a hassle, but at lesat I could look at it without my eyes bleeding.

Btw, this is so two days ago. I'm dissapointed with fark...

Ummm, using trillian or jabber doesn't stop your messages from going through the oscar server... Check your settings. Yes Trillian is great for blocking all of the retarded content AOL tries to cram down your throat, but they can still log all of your messages.

/Waits for the obligatory 1984 references to start rolling in

h2so4hurts
Ummm, using trillian or jabber doesn't stop your messages from going through the oscar server... Check your settings. Yes Trillian is great for blocking all of the retarded content AOL tries to cram down your throat, but they can still log all of your messages.

Using the Jabber network and not going through an AIM transport, though, will keep your messages off their network. Jabber is more fun anyway. :)

/Jabber user for a while now, though now without an AIM transport
//Also runs a Jabber server

Its a good thing i always IM using code words!

So does this affect ICQ as well? Its an AOL proggie now isn't it?

Whether or not you use Trillian or any other third-party IM manager - if it goes through AIM or you're chatting with AIMers (or ICQ, for that matter - that's owned by AOL, too) - they've got (according to their new TOS): "the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium".

For ever and ever, dude.

shiatty site. here ya go.

In case you didnt know that AOL was horrible and havent been worried ever since you heard that iChat was going to work over AIM services, I have a bad reality check for you in the form of some recent nasty changes to AIMs Terms of Service. Heres the part that really sucks: Although you or the owner of the Content retain ownership of all right, title and interest in Content that you post to any AIM Product, AOL owns all right, title and interest in any compilation, collective work or other derivative work created by AOL using or incorporating this Content. In addition, by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy. You waive any right to inspect or approve uses of the Content or to be compensated for any such uses. [emphasis mine]

Dont you just love it when somebody tries to break the way the internet community works?

Im no lawyer, so Im not sure of all the ins and outs of this, but heres my best guess after reading over it several times: Unfortunately, iChat works via an AOL server (login.oscar.aol.com), which under the definition laid out earlier in the Terms of Service, qualifies as an AIM product. Translation: everything you type in iChat will belong to both yourself and AOL. Now, its not quite as bad for iChat users yet, as the new terms of service state at the top in bold: The following terms and conditions apply to all users who either registered for AIM services or downloaded AIM updates or software on or after February 5, 2004. So, as long as you have used AIM since before February 5th, 2004, youre in the clear. . . . at least assuming you havent upgraded since then and until there is an iChat update [Thanks for the note, garoo!]. Hopefully, AOL will either be pressured to change these Terms of Service by then, Apple will somehow cram a unless you are a .mac registered Apple user clause in there, or Apple will build some encryption into iChat, so that only you and the person you are chatting with will be able to read what youve written (as it should be).

[via MacSlash]

UPDATE: Another bit of good news, which I didnt piece together when I originally wrote up this piece, but there is an out for iChat users once Tiger emerges: Of course, iChat AV is also a versatile instant text messaging application, supporting AOL Instant Messenger and Jabber Instant Messenger clients. Might as well sign up for a Jabber account now and send AOL and their anti-privacy stance packing.

breaking news: AOL gives the entire teenage population of the world UFIA.

Honestly though, I don't see the big deal... maybe I'm missing something, but this seems more like a legal thing, so that AOL could get these logs in say, a court battle, if subpoenad. Thus, Instant messaging logs could be used against you if you're accused of a crime(though they always could have been used, this would make it so you couldn't sue AOL for violating your privacy or somethin).

I could be mistaken, however...it just seems like everyone is overreacting. I doubt they have a crew out there reviewing all your IMs.

Now all my aim conversations will be made into a movie without my permission!

The one way out is if you installed AIM before the new TOS was released and never updated.

Still... not worth it. There's plenty of other IM programs that don't steal your words.

On a lark, I went and checked MS' TOS on MSN Messenger, and was rather suprised to find it in easy-to-read format, and that it simply states (adlib), "hey, your crap is private."

Go MS.

I did notice one line at the top there, though, that said something like, "if you're going to use MSN Messenger for business purposes, you need to acknowledge another type of contract". Dunno anything more than that on the "other type", though.

has anyone ever noticed that the aol logo looks like the masons logo with the pyrimad and the eye,

Any protest/petition up yet?

Nobody cares about your AIM conversation you had with some chick from WI.

/Get over yourselves.

KvanCetre
Honestly though, I don't see the big deal... maybe I'm missing something, but this seems more like a legal thing, so that AOL could get these logs in say, a court battle, if subpoenad. Thus, Instant messaging logs could be used against you if you're accused of a crime(though they always could have been used, this would make it so you couldn't sue AOL for violating your privacy or somethin).

They don't have to be asked by law enforcement or the courts to turn them over now. They now have the right to do whatever they want with them, which includes selling them to 3rd parties, putting them in a big AIM search engine, using your statements to push their products, etc.


I could be mistaken, however...it just seems like everyone is overreacting. I doubt they have a crew out there reviewing all your IMs.

Computers are very efficient and searching for things. Perhaps you've seen google.com?

Oh, and just cuz I got nowhere else to post this ---

don't let the TotalFarkers keep goading you (us) regular farkers. I bought one-months worth of TF, and it was crazy-go-nuts volumes of information. Gotta have ZERO life to be able to sift everything that comes down the TF pipe. I'm not knocking TF, not a bit - you get a chance at the whole deal - just don't let them sit on your paper burger king crown and think you're one rung less. :P

OY!

AIM/AOL can say whatever they want. But let them try to use something that someone has transmitted over AIM for their own purposes.

It's AOL. Did anyone expect anything different? It's freakin' AOL!

so are there any 3rd party services eg. trillian, or anything else that still uses an aim sn....where this TOS doesnt apply, or should i be switching to yahoo permanently

If anyone is that desparate to read my AIM "conversations," they really, really need to get a life.

Even though I don't use (g)AIM much anymore, I've posted the relevant bits of the TOS as an away message. I encourage you to do the same. As you know, everyone reads away messages when they're bored/lonely.

mystic1423: ...using your statements to push their products, etc.

I will now conclude all AIM conversations with: "I gotta get my chicken selects! lol! omg!" Maybe I'll be part of an ad campaign.

If you don't like this, go get a copy of Trillian or GAIM (I personally love Trillian Pro 3, but the free version will work also) and, this part is important, have everyone you talk to download it also. Trust me, they will thank you for it. This doesn't stop AOL from taking ownership of your content as so many have you have been trying to point out, but what it will allow you to do is encrypt all of your messages between you and other users of the program. If AOL wants to take ownership of a bunch of encryped garbage than I could care less.

For a company setting, AOL IM or ICQ isn't a great idea in the first place. Block it at a firewall level (to prevent users from sending information over it and putting the company at risk) and then setup a private IM network within the company network.

So then... would trillian's encryption (secure-im) help avoid any of this potential snooping?

That's why I don't use America On Line. 'Cause they suck.

Hopefully, Microsoft will do us some good and assimulate AOL too.