Open letter to Twitshirt

I’ve been rather vocal on Twitter about the abysmal terms of service Twitshirt expects authors to agree to. So I thought I’d try to get some answers. This is what I sent today, using their contact form:

First of all, kudos for switching to opt-in. It was the right thing to do. But what is going on with your terms of service?

They’re the most ridiculous terms I’ve ever seen. I have people asking me to opt in so they can buy my shirts, but I’m afraid to do so because you want me to give up ALL my intellectual property and privacy rights. In fact, reading closely, it seems you expect me to waive my right to make any claim against you whatsoever. You could kidnap my daughter and I’d have no recourse. Well, maybe not. But you could refuse to pay me the royalties you owe under your own rules and I wouldn’t be able do anything about it. Why do you need to attach such horrid conditions to what could otherwise be a friendly and profitable business relationship?

Why not just say something like “By signing up, you grant us a worldwide license to use your text on shirts” etc.? Every major site that deals in user-generated content has reasonable language like this. Why are you different?

We’ll see if they care to respond.

Update (5/9/09): Someone who knows the Airbag/Twitshirt people has told me “they’re on it.” I really hope so.

Update (5/18/09): Twitshirt responds.