[Social-discuss] Who owns the data once transferred?

[Andrew Gray]

One of the most important benefits to a P2P distributed system of social
networking (as I understand the effort) is for the individual to have
control over the data they publish. They possess the original copy on
their computer, and it is that copy that is distributed to their
friends.

I'm also a big-time supporter of libre software. Now, when I think of my
software, I believe that once it is on my computer, that is MY copy. I
own it. I can do what I like with it, while it's on my own computer.
This is very different (as you all know) from the majority of
proprietary software which is distributed with licenses, effectively
making the creator (Apple, Microsoft, Adobe) the owner of the software,
and the recipient only has a license, or permission, to use the
software.

How does this work with a P2P social networking site? On Facebook, it is
claimed that you have ownership over the data you post. You can modify
that data, and the very next time people access the data it is still the
creator's (since it is viewed ONLY in the browser, and not really
downloaded onto the computer for future viewing in the same way that
libre software is).

What about the version of the data a friend has downloaded and viewed?
What rights do they have with that data? Even if it is out of date, or
if the original creator has modified it (for privacy or accuracy), every
person who has downloaded it and does not update it via an internet
connection has a potentially inaccurate, accidentally public copy of
that data. Unless you really really trust every friend on the network,
this can be bad.

So does data you download expire, requiring a fresh update? That sounds
sketchy to me. Any ideas? Would we let the users license their data??
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND? The simple license gnu.org uses?:

"(c) 2010 Andrew Gray. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire
article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."

The above license would be dangerous for user privacy in this medium.
I'm wondering, what sort of method do you all think would be ideal for
protecting data? In the end, as we all know, there is nothing anybody
can do to prevent data copying and sharing, unless we try to implement
some nasty DRM system, which I'm steadfast against. Decentralization
comes at a cost, no? :P

--Andrew Gray (Sweetandy)
address@hidden