PayPal has joined forces with Bitcoin as a sort of keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies closer tactic. Bitcoin is designed to overtake and make obsolete services like Paypal and Western Union. It is faster, less expensive, and doesn’t require their third-party services to accomplish the same objectives. It is a better PayPal, and they know it.

Now that the Internet has borne this superior option, it would be wise for PayPal to foster a stronger connection with its customer base to keep them happy and in the fold, no? PayPal doesn’t see it that way. In fact, they may be looking to drive more people towards the freedom and convenience of Bitcoin with their upcoming changes this summer.

PayPal’s Terms of Service to change July 1st, 2015

If you haven’t seen this, you should, and you should share this with your friends, family, anyone who used PayPal in connection with a website providing online content. On July 1st, 2015, Paypal will update it’s TOS agreement to take away any and all intellectual rights to any content you provide online. If you use Paypal to accept PayPal, they will attempt to take ownership of any online content you add to your business or website. Here is a key excerpt that basically starts the new PayPal TOS:

Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement.

Intellectual Property

We are adding a new paragraph to section 1.3., which outlines the license and rights that you give to us and the PayPal Group (see paragraph 12 below for the definition of “PayPal Group”) to use content that you post for publication using the Services. A similar paragraph features in the Privacy Policy, which is removed by the addition of this paragraph to the User Agreement. The new paragraph at section 1.3 reads as follows:

“When providing us with content or posting content (in each case for publication, whether on- or off-line) using the Services, you grant the PayPal Group a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise any and all copyright, publicity, trademarks, database rights and intellectual property rights you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future. Further, to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, you waive your moral rights and promise not to assert such rights against the PayPal Group, its sublicensees or assignees. You represent and warrant that none of the following infringe any intellectual property right: your provision of content to us, your posting of content using the Services, and the PayPal Group’s use of such content (including of works derived from it) in connection with the Services.”

Also Read: Paypal Exec Aims to take Biometrics to a Whole New Level: Goodbye Passwords

If you haven’t been following these developments, multi-national businesses are working with governments to take control of internet usage, regulations, and even local government utilities through international treaties like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is being secretly being constructed, without public or legislative consult, and is a massive outline of future controls by businesses on many aspects of your life. You aren;’t supposed to know what lies ahead with the TPP. Search online for more information on the TPP, and check WikiLeaks for more details on what little has been exposed to this attack on freedom. This is clearly a step along these growing lines of corporate fascism.

It looks like PayPal has joined the dark side, but freedom rings within the Bitcoin community, and this just underscores why Bitcoin is here and why it is the future of online technology and business. It’s all about control. Their control. See the link above about their plans for biometric control over your account. Paypal looks ready to confiscate your online content, and your business if you let them. Bitcoin brings power to the people. The choice is yours. Consider yourselves warned.

Is PayPal on a righteous path or are they on the wrong side of history? Do you like owning your content, or can PayPal take it, just because you use their payment service? Share above and comment below.