Hey, kids, it's the latest scandal to rock Cupertino-- iToolsgate! And it's about freakin' time, too, because we haven't seen a good, hearty scandal come out of Apple headquarters since the Great G4 Speed Dump of 1999 and the associated Order Cancellation and Reinstatement Backpedal. Sure, there was the company's withdrawal from Apple Expo 2000 in the UK and that trade show's ensuing collapse, but overseas drama doesn't always play that well to predominantly U.S. crowds. This time around, though, Apple's managed to bake up a scandal that's sure to delight and outrage a wide cross-section of the Mac-using population: faithful viewer Stephen White alerted us to the unsettling fact that the lawyers snuck a clause into the iTools membership agreement which gives Apple carte blanche to use anything you post using HomePage in any way they want, for free, forever.

Check it out-- a MacInTouch special report excerpts the clause in question, which grants Apple "a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (though multiple tiers) right" to do pretty much anything they want with "any content you post in any public site within iTools." The implication, if we're not mistaken, is that all those wedding photos you dragged into your iDisk and subsequently published to the iTools web site via HomePage are now fair game for Apple to exploit. We're a little unclear on whether the Public folder in one's iDisk constitutes a "public site," and what about stuff in the Pictures folder that isn't published using HomePage? It's still loadable in any browser to anyone who knows the filenames and your member name. In any event, it's a creepy policy and it makes us feel dirty all over.

Now, call us picky, but we're the sort of people that actually at least skims all those end-user agreements before installing software, and we don't recall seeing anything quite as heinous as that. Moreover, we'd like to think that such a fantastically alarming clause would have jumped right out at us and waved a little red flag while dancing the Jig of Crazy Agreements. That's not to say that the "we own your data" clause wasn't included in the terms of service when we first signed up for iTools, although we imagine it's possible that Apple actually added it later. (We just went back and loaded up the agreement again, and we don't recall having to scroll horizontally so much to read it, either.) Another likely scenario is that Apple did a great job of burying that clause in a psychological blind spot, sandwiched in between so much mind-numbing legalese about unsolicited commercial email and unauthorized monitoring of data that we just plumb missed it.

Anyway, the clause is there now, and thousands of iTools members have apparently agreed to it. So don't be surprised if that iMovie of your wiener dog shows up in an EarthLink commercial a few months from now, and you without a single royalty check. And we strongly recommend that you delete those "goofing around" pictures you posted right after trying out your digital camera the first time, just to see if it worked-- unless seeing Apple's home page adorned with a picture of you with your finger up your nose is how you want to spend your fifteen minutes of fame.