Microsoft abandons right to 'sell, perform or publish' private e-mails

A storm of complaint from internet users has forced Microsoft to rewrite the terms of service for its 84 million Hotmail users, and its new "Passport" website, which had claimed ownership of any messages or data it passed on.

Screenwriters and authors threatened to abandon the free e-mail service altogether after the discovery that their terms of use, written in 1999, would give the software giant the rights to use any message ­ such as a business plan, book, or screenplay ­ sent through its service.

Microsoft insisted the terms of service were being revised and that the original wording was "an unfortunate oversight". The original privacy policy and terms of use for the new Passport service would have given the company the right to "use, modify, copy, distribute... or sell" personal information of web users.

Steven Fullman, a solicitor specialising in the internet, said: "Arguably, this does simply gives Microsoft the right to use any of the data you send through it. It sounds like a cross between that, and getting the rights to everything you ever publish or send through the site."

When this was pointed out earlier this week by the online magazine Salon, web users began to examine the terms for Hotmail, and realised that Microsoft had the right to use the content of any file or message for its own ends.

Microsoft has spent the past two days hurriedly rewriting the terms, but was unable yesterday to say whether the "outdated" terms would still apply to material which had already passed through its system.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said: "It's just an unfortunate occurrence that the Passport terms of use fell out of date with Microsoft's actual terms and conditions over data privacy."

Widespread suspicion among internet users led them to investigate the precise wording of the "contract" that Passport and Hotmail users sign up to.

Mr Fullman said: "It may be that it's written like that so that they can sell the database of information as an asset if the company goes bust.

"It could also mean that by claiming the copyright, they could delete any information that they deemed was inappropriate for public consumption."

- INDEPENDENT