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StarNow updated T&Cs

By Synergy Photoworks, 1715905882

If you are on StarNow you will have received an email with links to their updated terms of service and privacy policy but have you actually clicked through and read the small print?

This might be of particular interest to you (or not, depending upon whether you are happy for them to sell anything you upload without permission from or recompense to you):

"In addition, you grant to StarNow, without any credit or compensation to you, a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, unrestricted, irrevocable, and fully transferable, assignable and sub-licensable license to host, use, modify, display, copy, reproduce, disclose, sell, translate, create derivative works of, distribute, and export any User Provided Content, in whole or in part, or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now known or hereafter developed or discovered for any purposes whatsoever. You agree that StarNow may publish or otherwise disclose your name in connection with your User Provided Content."

The word that caught my eye was "sell".

GSC4X said, 1715906055

Models beware. Photographers be aware.

GDSandy Photography said, 1715930998

I have removed all media and asked them to remove my profile.

Oakesstudios said, 1715931586

Well spotted

MidgePhoto said, 1715931668

Has anyone asked them why?

RedBaron said, 1715937521

Deeply concerning and also illegal in most cases. Models and Actors will generally only be granted licenses to use the images for personal publicity. They do not have the legal authority to accept the terms introduced

FiL said, 1715941568

GDSandy Photography said

I have removed all media and asked them to remove my profile.

I ditched my profile there a long time ago but since reading this thread (thanks OP) I'm contacting models who still host my images in their portfolios there and alerting them to the new T&Cs and the fact that my usage licence does not include commercial use, hence they no longer comply with the site's T&Cs whilst they continue to use the images.

Allesandro B said, 1715942802

Deleted all of my media. What a badly thought out change. Thanks for the heads up

RedBaron said, 1715943625

Allesandro B

Have you? When you delete an image you get a message about still remaining in a section you cannot access. I have emailed requesting this be deleted too

Ben.M said, 1715944001

Thanks for this. I have some music tracks and a couple of scripts I better remove.

Unfocussed Mike said, 1715945487

MidgePhoto said

Has anyone asked them why?

The "why" I would think is fairly obvious given the timing.

I imagine they are claiming this right so that they -- or some corporation they sell the business to in future -- can license user-generated content for AI training. The way they have worded it "to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, software or technology of any kind now known or hereafter developed or discovered for any purposes whatsoever", strongly suggests that.

This is the only meaningful market they'd have to sell their user-uploaded content -- who else would want this kind of content? It's never had a value before.

But it's a goldmine for AI training. Think of it: photos of at least a million individual, diverse people (they have 3.5 million users), with each one likely photographed from multiple angles in different contexts (so an AI can be trained with data where multiple photos are verifiably of a single individual), short movie clips focussing on individual actors, voice samples (that can be connected to age/gender/racial heritage) etc.

Loads of websites are currently pushing through changes like this, in anticipation of the outcomes of lawsuits.

Good spot indeed, Synergy Photoworks .

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Allesandro B said, 1715945401

RedBaron said

Allesandro B

Have you? When you delete an image you get a message about still remaining in a section you cannot access. I have emailed requesting this be deleted too

in the media locker, yes you can access it, right at the top on the right, its a funny icon

Unfocussed Mike said, 1715946116

FWIW, for American users, Backstage (who StarNow own) seem to have made the same terms changes.

Allesandro B said, 1715946937

Unfocussed Mike whilst the website was useful. StarNow are a very strange company and their tech is absolutely dreadful. Although the casting system is still way better than here

Unfocussed Mike said, 1715947376

Allesandro B said

Unfocussed Mike whilst the website was useful. StarNow are a very strange company and their tech is absolutely dreadful. Although the casting system is still way better than here

Yeah. But it doesn't take much to imagine they've been approached by an AI firm. I doubt anyone on the internet has a cleaner, better-correlated database of photographs, audio and video of as many individual people.

I suspect it will pass people by without much fuss, as we sleepwalk to the enshittifapocalypse.