The General Services Administration (basically, the responsible party when it comes to the operation of the federal government) has signed significant new custom terms-of-service agreements that end the days of social media services Flickr, YouTube, Blip.TV being forbidden fruit in the online government garden. Both Federal Computer Week's Doug Beizer and Wired's Chris Snyder have reports. The GSA umbrella agreement saves federal agencies -- and their lawyers -- the time and trouble of haggling over cookies and code before making use of content-sharing tools. One major sticking point now resolved: indemnification clauses in the services' standard service agreements that had made disputes subject to state, and not federal law. While the GSA's arrangements smooth the way, agencies and departments might still have their own requirements and concerns to be worked out with service providers. Twitter, notes Beizer, didn't require any negotiation -- even in its natural state, the barebones service didn't run afoul of any government strictures.