Regular visitors to the blog may recall a rather stinging (in that "oh, the raven got out of the wrong side of the nest today, did he?" style) but, I felt, extremely important post about Pearson's ELT Community falling far short of what might be considered ethical and transparent treatment of its members and participants.
I am happy to say that today I received an extremely polite and detailed email from one of the editors associated with the community, informing me that the clause in question from the Terms and Conditions has been removed in its entirety. I also accept the explanation given that this represented a problematic gulf between the designers of the community and the corporate legal team responsible for the terminology, and that it was never Pearson's intention to use or appropriate people's content or deceive participants in the community.
So, whatever your feelings about big publishers and ELT communities (and whether or not you feel they make an appropriate match), credit where credit is due: they have listened, agreed that there was a problem, and moved speedily and transparently to clean it up.
On with the show.
=D
