Idly reading through the Dreamwidth TOS
Sunday, April 26th, 2009 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
charmianWas looking at the Dreamwidth TOS (which is, BTW, a work in progress and subject to change. Also, I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL)).
"By submitting Content to us for inclusion on the Website, you grant us a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content, solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the contents of your account, including through downloadable clients and external feeds. "
Hmm, so this means that by agreeing to the DW TOS, we have agreed to having an RSS feed of our journal? Not that this bothers me, but I recall it being a point of contention on LJ. (The LJ TOS doesn't specifically talk about external feeds).
"However, you acknowledge that we have the right (but not the obligation), in our sole discretion, to remove or refuse to remove any Content from the service. You also agree that we may, without limitation, take any steps necessary to remove Content from the site search engine or member directory, at our sole discretion."
I don't object to this, but I do wonder under what circumstances this would occur? Under which circumstances would content be removed from the site search engine or member directory?
The parts about what users must not do are similar to LJ's, but shorter.
LJ's: "Upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive to another's privacy (up to, but not excluding any address, email, phone number, or any other contact information without the written consent of the owner of such information), hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;"
DW's: "Upload, post, or otherwise transmit any Content that is harmful, threatening, abusive, hateful, invasive to the privacy and publicity rights of any person, or that violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law, including any regulation having the force of law; "
Interestingly, DW mentions publicity rights as well as privacy. DW also doesn't go to the length of explaining what information would be 'invasive to another's privacy' that LJ does. LJ's also includes "harassing," "defamatory," "libelous," "vulgar," and "obscene." Actually, it is interesting that LJ uses "vulgar" because while obscene is a legal term, I'm not sure if vulgar is.
The "Harms minors in any way" clause is not included in DW's TOS, but I think that would be included under US law, as it certainly is not legal to harm minors, or adults, for that matter, right?
The "forging headers" part would probably fall under spoofing.
LJ's includes ""Stalk" or otherwise harass another person or company;" I assume that since harassment is illegal, it would fall under the lawbreaking clause?
LJ's includes "Use LiveJournal as a forwarding service to another website;" A redirect? I'm not sure if that is even technically possible.
LJ's includes "Engage in commercial activities within LiveJournal or on behalf of LiveJournal without prior approval. This includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:
1. Displaying a banner that is designed to profit you or any other business or organization; and
2. Displaying banners for services that provide cash or cash-equivalent prizes to users in exchange for hyperlinks to their web sites."
Would this be "unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites "? Though, is a banner, as long as it is not deceptive, unethical? I've long been confused about where LJ draws the line on businesses and commercial promotion. I see some people using their LJs to have little cottage industries like ebay reselling. On the other hand, DW is for those who wish to create things and often creative people will want to sell their creative works, which is a form of business and promotion. DW is also planning a user to user marketplace, also, and a potential micropoints system. Not sure how that will fit into the equation.
"By submitting Content to us for inclusion on the Website, you grant us a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content, solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the contents of your account, including through downloadable clients and external feeds. "
Hmm, so this means that by agreeing to the DW TOS, we have agreed to having an RSS feed of our journal? Not that this bothers me, but I recall it being a point of contention on LJ. (The LJ TOS doesn't specifically talk about external feeds).
"However, you acknowledge that we have the right (but not the obligation), in our sole discretion, to remove or refuse to remove any Content from the service. You also agree that we may, without limitation, take any steps necessary to remove Content from the site search engine or member directory, at our sole discretion."
I don't object to this, but I do wonder under what circumstances this would occur? Under which circumstances would content be removed from the site search engine or member directory?
The parts about what users must not do are similar to LJ's, but shorter.
LJ's: "Upload, post or otherwise transmit any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive to another's privacy (up to, but not excluding any address, email, phone number, or any other contact information without the written consent of the owner of such information), hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;"
DW's: "Upload, post, or otherwise transmit any Content that is harmful, threatening, abusive, hateful, invasive to the privacy and publicity rights of any person, or that violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law, including any regulation having the force of law; "
Interestingly, DW mentions publicity rights as well as privacy. DW also doesn't go to the length of explaining what information would be 'invasive to another's privacy' that LJ does. LJ's also includes "harassing," "defamatory," "libelous," "vulgar," and "obscene." Actually, it is interesting that LJ uses "vulgar" because while obscene is a legal term, I'm not sure if vulgar is.
The "Harms minors in any way" clause is not included in DW's TOS, but I think that would be included under US law, as it certainly is not legal to harm minors, or adults, for that matter, right?
The "forging headers" part would probably fall under spoofing.
LJ's includes ""Stalk" or otherwise harass another person or company;" I assume that since harassment is illegal, it would fall under the lawbreaking clause?
LJ's includes "Use LiveJournal as a forwarding service to another website;" A redirect? I'm not sure if that is even technically possible.
LJ's includes "Engage in commercial activities within LiveJournal or on behalf of LiveJournal without prior approval. This includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:
1. Displaying a banner that is designed to profit you or any other business or organization; and
2. Displaying banners for services that provide cash or cash-equivalent prizes to users in exchange for hyperlinks to their web sites."
Would this be "unethical or unwanted commercial content designed to drive traffic to third party sites "? Though, is a banner, as long as it is not deceptive, unethical? I've long been confused about where LJ draws the line on businesses and commercial promotion. I see some people using their LJs to have little cottage industries like ebay reselling. On the other hand, DW is for those who wish to create things and often creative people will want to sell their creative works, which is a form of business and promotion. DW is also planning a user to user marketplace, also, and a potential micropoints system. Not sure how that will fit into the equation.
