Webtoon's new user agreement is... uhh... super sketchy?

[river121693]

So first, I'm not a lawyer. This is from their new user agreement which pops up when you log in. It seems pretty clear that anyone posting to Webtoon. It looks like if you post on there, they can license it for whatever they want.

EDIT: it's also on here:
https://www.webtoons.com/en/terms

[Chocolate]

What does that means? Like they can claimed my comic as their own??

[river121693]

I'm browsing their reddit, and it seems that everyone is confused. The agreement doesn't seem to mention any "exclusivity" so they can't claim it as theirs. But to me, it reads pretty clearly like they're able to license your comic (sell it, make merch off of it, etc.) for free.

It also says you can't sue them in court lol.

[LunarScyphozoa]

This the word “exploit” less or more sketchy in a contract because that’s.. an odd choice of word for them to use if it’s got the same meaning in both contexts.

[river121693]

Im only using sketchy because I dont know the legal terms enough to know if my interpretation is correct.

But if my interpretation is correct, then yeah, super exploitative. I wont be posting there anymore till a lawyer look into it. Glad I made my website!

[GumshoeComix]

lmao waiver says "You can't sue us" They know they're breaking the law, and that'll never hold up in court

[OLDSAGGY]

ooof I also don’t have any legal background, but this does, indeed, seem super sketchy and like it is heavily in webtoon’s favor with little/no benefit for creators. I am wondering about the part that says smth like “to the maximum extent allowed under current laws.” To what extent can they actually enforce this policy? It feels doubtful to me that they can profit from/ use someone’s intellectual property royalty-free without the creator even signing anything, including existing work posted before this new agreement just bc they said so. I love webtoon as a reader, but as a creator I kind of want to take my stuff down now

[BlairFujin]

isn't that standard social media "we can display your stuff and put ads next to it" but in lawyer stuff that everyone gets scared by whenever someone decides to actually give tos a read?
I don't know, we most likely need someone who can understand "lawyer speek" to translate it into human terms

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Sounds like they won't claim to be the actual owners but they claim all rights to use if as if they are the owners.

[river121693]

I agree we need a lawyer, but comparing this to Tapas' ToS or even Webtoon's previious ToS, the language has become specific toward capitalizing on your work.

Webtoon's previous agreeement:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230512110739/https://www.webtoons.com/en/terms?webtoon-platform-redirect=true

It doesn't include the "create derivative works of, perform (including publicly), display (including publicly), publish, distribute, monetize, (e.g. by placing advertisements or charging for access) and otherwise exploit your User Posting for any purpose in all media now known or hereafter devised"

They also really expanded the arbitration agreement. Though Im not sure if the previous agreement requires you to resolve issues through arbitration like this recent one does.

Tapas agreement is even more specific to how the licensing with them works. They specify that the license is only for promotion. It's not a total catch all like webtoon.
https://help.tapas.io/hc/en-us/articles/115005545248-Terms-of-Service

Its just really sus and Im uncomfortable posting my work theere now.

@Ordinaryaverageguy yeah how I understand it, "licensing" is granting usage (free or with a licensing fee), not ownership, of a creation.

[ylldre]

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[river121693]

Oh no. You maybe right 🫥

[LunarScyphozoa]

Holy. Crap. Yikes.

[ylldre]

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[ylldre]

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[thepenmonster]

Pardon my French but Webtoon can kiss my ass.

[Mallory]

I was wondering if it was the standard social media disclaimer, but with comparisons to Tapas and the presence of Naver’s ML image generation aspirations, I think imma take down my account there. TBH I’ve already been heavily considering it due to their poor UI and never featuring page format comics. I guess this is just the final nudge? I’ll wait and see if there’s clarification before doing anything (but I also may just do it anyways because of those other reasons)

At least Tapas is firmly against all AI on their platform right now (not that it can’t change its stance in the future, but I imagine they are playing it super safe and waiting for regulations and lawsuits to be over before they even consider it).

ETA it is worth noting that the report about developing gen ML is from March of this year, however as of June 7, this appeared to be their stance:

Naver Webtoon is looking into setting up regulations on AI-generated art

So who knows.

[river121693]

https://twitter.com/zzsleeps/status/1673924126434631682
It seems like Tiktok and IG has the same language, so it probably is still boilerplate. I still feel uneasy because of how broad the licensing is, especially when looking at Tapas or even Youtube's ToS.

[MaxFF]

The Instagram one says the license is terminated when you delete your content, which does not seem to be the case for Webtoons. The Webtoons one is permanent and non revocable which makes it even sketchier in my eyes. Yes the Instagram one still makes me a little uneasy, but there is a mechanism to get out of it.

[river121693]

Yeah if all the TOS I’ve looked through webtoon feels the most sketchy. Even if it’s for promotional stuff, I’m still wondering if the terms means they can do whatever they want with our work
Why can’t they be as clear as senpai tapas :,0