New LJ user agreement
Apr. 5th, 2017 10:36 amNew LJ user agreement
Looking through the new LJ user agreement, I notice three potentially problematic things:
Sections 4.6 (user is responsible for the security of their password) and 4.7 (user is responsible for all actions performed with their authentication details). This is mainly problematic because LJ stopped supporting SSL, so anyone who has access to a user's traffic can see their password in plaintext, post gay baby seal porn on the account, and have the user held liable.
Sections 7.5 and 8.5 (joint liability for comments posted in blogs and communities, by the comment poster and the blog/community owner). On the one hand, blog/community owners have the ability, and some responsibility, to delete content that is illegal or violates the Terms of Service. But this can obviously be used to shut down blogs just by posting inappropriate comments on them and holding the owner liable before they even have a reasonable chance to react.
Section 9.1.2 (Administration gets to use and modify your posts for editorial purposes.) Is this, "we add some photos to the page featuring the LJ Idol winner, and add a comma for clarity," or "We can twist your words into Russian propaganda and attribute it to you"?
And, of course, the actual terms are written in Russian, so who knows what the hell you really agreed to.
I don't remember whether any of this is better or worse than the previous user agreement. None of it specifically enables any behavior that's worse than other things LJ already does (e.g., collaborating with the Russian government to "disappear" dissenters). Probably, none of it enables new behavior at all, except now they can say, "Hey, you gave us permission to do this in the user agreement!" If they want to delete your account, they'll do it regardless.
I think that section 12.1 does not mean they can put advertising on paid accounts. "Unless otherwise specifically set forth by a separate agreement between User and the Administration, the Administration may without further notice or refund, place advertising on the Service, including on any Blog/Community pages." The paid account constitutes a "separate agreement" which "otherwise specifically set forth" that it will be ad free. But hell, LJ has been reneging on promises to paid accounts since before it was Russian, so it's not like there are any guarantees.
Long story short, the migration is long overdue. I don't think it matters whether this latest step is more evil, or just a continuation of the same old evil. I'm only still cross-posting because the migration is not yet complete, but I sure as hell won't miss my LJ if/when they delete it.
(By the way,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
siderea is no longer cross-posting to LJ as of this development, so if you follow her, do it on DreamWidth.)
Looking through the new LJ user agreement, I notice three potentially problematic things:
Sections 4.6 (user is responsible for the security of their password) and 4.7 (user is responsible for all actions performed with their authentication details). This is mainly problematic because LJ stopped supporting SSL, so anyone who has access to a user's traffic can see their password in plaintext, post gay baby seal porn on the account, and have the user held liable.
Sections 7.5 and 8.5 (joint liability for comments posted in blogs and communities, by the comment poster and the blog/community owner). On the one hand, blog/community owners have the ability, and some responsibility, to delete content that is illegal or violates the Terms of Service. But this can obviously be used to shut down blogs just by posting inappropriate comments on them and holding the owner liable before they even have a reasonable chance to react.
Section 9.1.2 (Administration gets to use and modify your posts for editorial purposes.) Is this, "we add some photos to the page featuring the LJ Idol winner, and add a comma for clarity," or "We can twist your words into Russian propaganda and attribute it to you"?
And, of course, the actual terms are written in Russian, so who knows what the hell you really agreed to.
I don't remember whether any of this is better or worse than the previous user agreement. None of it specifically enables any behavior that's worse than other things LJ already does (e.g., collaborating with the Russian government to "disappear" dissenters). Probably, none of it enables new behavior at all, except now they can say, "Hey, you gave us permission to do this in the user agreement!" If they want to delete your account, they'll do it regardless.
I think that section 12.1 does not mean they can put advertising on paid accounts. "Unless otherwise specifically set forth by a separate agreement between User and the Administration, the Administration may without further notice or refund, place advertising on the Service, including on any Blog/Community pages." The paid account constitutes a "separate agreement" which "otherwise specifically set forth" that it will be ad free. But hell, LJ has been reneging on promises to paid accounts since before it was Russian, so it's not like there are any guarantees.
Long story short, the migration is long overdue. I don't think it matters whether this latest step is more evil, or just a continuation of the same old evil. I'm only still cross-posting because the migration is not yet complete, but I sure as hell won't miss my LJ if/when they delete it.
(By the way,
siderea is no longer cross-posting to LJ as of this development, so if you follow her, do it on DreamWidth.)
