In academia.edu's terms of service, it says
By making available any Member Content on or through the Site or Services, you hereby grant to Academia.edu a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, view, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site or Services.
This seems crazy, and posting anything there would clearly violate even the most lenient publisher agreement (for instance, many math publishers allow me to post the final paper on the internet, but not to sell it). Furthermore, these terms seem potentially very harmful to the users. What is their rationale for employing such terms? And why would anyone in their right mind even consider posting a paper there?
Note (as of July 2016): this part of the terms of service have changed and seems slightly less horrific. Though other parts seem more insane, and also in contradiction with each other, like they own all your intellectual property rights.
