[HN Gopher] Vultr is now claiming full perpetual commercial righ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Vultr is now claiming full perpetual commercial rights over all
       hosted content
        
       Author : RyeCombinator
       Score  : 260 points
       Date   : 2024-03-27 07:41 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (old.reddit.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (old.reddit.com)
        
       | RadixDLT wrote:
       | wrong link
        
         | meblum wrote:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning...
        
       | progbits wrote:
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning...
        
       | dig1 wrote:
       | You are probably looking for this summary [1]:
       | https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/                  Section 12:
       | You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual,
       | irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license
       | (including the right to sublicense         through multiple
       | tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform,
       | publicly display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish,
       | transmit         and distribute each of your User Content, or any
       | portion thereof, in any form, medium or distribution method now
       | known or hereafter existing, known         or developed, and
       | otherwise use and commercialize the User Content in any way that
       | Vultr deems appropriate, without any further consent, notice
       | and/or         compensation to you or to any third parties, for
       | purposes of providing the Services to you.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning...
        
         | juitpykyk wrote:
         | > for purposes of providing the Services to you
         | 
         | This seems the key part
        
           | postepowanieadm wrote:
           | They don't need a licence, and a very wide one, to do this.
        
             | _flux wrote:
             | That's probably not a legal opinion they paid for.
        
               | tempaccount420 wrote:
               | Knowing lawyers, it was probably sloppily copied from
               | another ToS they (or not even them) wrote.
        
           | wodenokoto wrote:
           | So they have a perpetual right to your contend, for as long
           | as they are providing you a service.
           | 
           | Either way you read it, it seems like poor wording.
        
             | andy_ppp wrote:
             | Perpetual means continuing forever, so why would it end at
             | the end of the services?
        
               | wodenokoto wrote:
               | If you ask your parents if you can stay up late to finish
               | your homework essay, it should follow that you only gain
               | that right until the essay is finished.
               | 
               | If you ask if you can stay up late for the rest of your
               | life, it should follow that you gain that right for the
               | rest of your life.
               | 
               | If you ask for both at the same time, in the same
               | sentence, you might grow up to write TOS for vultr.
        
           | pera wrote:
           | They want permission to _commercialise_ my content  "for
           | purposes of providing the Services to" me?
           | 
           | First time I hear such requirement
        
             | funcDropShadow wrote:
             | Then look at the TOS of Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram.
        
               | pera wrote:
               | Yeah sorry I meant in the context of cloud providers
        
             | groestl wrote:
             | That's the basis for any business model where you are the
             | product.
        
               | cookiemonsieur wrote:
               | > That's the basis for any business model where you are
               | the product.
               | 
               | True but most times, when you are the product, the
               | service is free. In this case you pay for the service.
        
               | lincm83hey wrote:
               | They do offer relatively inexpensive solutions, though.
               | And LinkedIn is a good example of a business whose
               | revenues are largely made from sharing and harvesting
               | data from both paid and free users for the benefit of
               | some of those paying users, and some third parties, too.
               | 
               | Vultr is just even cheekier than LinkedIn.
               | 
               | Who's to say if they'll actually act on this, but them
               | setting themselves up to legally do this is all a bit
               | gross.
        
             | DougBTX wrote:
             | That's an easy one: the company exists to provide The
             | Services, revenue from commercialising the content supports
             | the company.
        
             | juitpykyk wrote:
             | They offer services like store fronts. This might require
             | them to sell your stuff and accept credit cards on your
             | behalf.
             | 
             | https://www.vultr.com/marketplace/apps/woocommerce/
        
               | pera wrote:
               | Ah I was not aware of this, I guess it makes sense then?
               | They could make this section of the ToS specific to their
               | marketplace/store front products
        
             | res0nat0r wrote:
             | This verbiage is standard for almost all internet/service
             | providers, it's language to allow them to display your
             | content on their behalf.
        
           | emmanueloga_ wrote:
           | Does it change anything? Paraphrasing:
           | 
           | "Vultr [will own] [all of your] User Content [and do whatever
           | Vultr wants with] the User Content [...] _for the purposes of
           | providing the Services to you_. "
           | 
           | You could read that as: "if you want to work with us we will
           | own all of your user content".
        
           | gregw2 wrote:
           | I am not a lawyer but I have seen startups
           | distort/rationalize legal language as their tech services
           | evolve to grandfather new situations into old language.
           | 
           | I don't know if vultr language is worse than others, but my
           | concern would be that someone selling you out can squeeze a
           | lot in that clause for a long time, particularly if you never
           | find out. Arguably that's in bad faith, but...
           | 
           | Say that to provide the Services to you, vultr has to
           | supplement its income by (old school) selling your videos to
           | a dvd publishing company, or (newer) creating their own
           | streaming tv channel, or providing them to an AI model
           | training company, or providing them to an "affiliate"
           | advertising-serving broker who slurps your created content
           | and slaps one or more segmentation labels about your content
           | ("kink", "religion(X)", "gamer") tied to your email which it
           | then resells to world+dog?
           | 
           | Ie is selling you out part of what vultr needs to do to
           | provides the Services to you?
           | 
           | I find it very hard to trust companies based solely on their
           | legal language when that language is viewed from an
           | adversarial position. But I am not lawyer to know what kinds
           | of "misreadings" are "beyond the pale"/not legally
           | defensible.
        
             | groestl wrote:
             | "an adversarial position" is the only position you should
             | assume when interpreting legal texts. After all, if push
             | comes to shove, your the actual adversary. And in any other
             | case the legal text is not needed.
        
           | Terr_ wrote:
           | "Selling copies of your genome to partners enables us to
           | _affordably_ provide the service, therefore you agreed to it.
           | "
        
         | funcDropShadow wrote:
         | On top Vultr gives all the liabilities to the victim ...
         | customer:
         | 
         | > As between you and us, you own your User Content and you have
         | full responsibility for all User Content you make or submit,
         | including its legality, reliability and appropriateness, while
         | using the Services.
        
       | throwaway1o24 wrote:
       | They appear to be appropriately named
        
         | exe34 wrote:
         | Nominative determinism. Unlike OpenAI. I suppose it's a form of
         | carcinization for corporations.
        
       | tedeh wrote:
       | I'm guessing they're about to make some kind of generative-AI
       | play and need access to more data.
        
         | groestl wrote:
         | Or they used AI to generate their new TOS and didn't
         | proofread...
        
           | itronitron wrote:
           | ... and the AI was trained on data belonging to Vultr users,
           | who happen to be lawyers...
        
         | itronitron wrote:
         | I could see a company claiming they need AI in order to provide
         | their service to their users.
        
         | Havoc wrote:
         | It was added before data for AI became big
        
       | GrumpySloth wrote:
       | How does it apply to VPS instances? Do they snapshot them and
       | scan the filesystem for content?
       | 
       | I'll be migrating to Hetzner in any case.
        
         | groestl wrote:
         | Have all my stuff there (bare metal), can recommend.
        
           | docc wrote:
           | same, using it for years. Its great
        
         | arcastroe wrote:
         | If this is the case, is there a way to protect against it? Is
         | there a way to keep the data encrypted? Thinking along the
         | lines of bitlocker on windows.
        
           | GrumpySloth wrote:
           | No. VM snapshots include RAM as well, so the decryption key
           | can be copied from there. The decrypted data can also be
           | intercepted when you decrypt it.
           | 
           | Without the pipe dream of efficient homomorphic encryption
           | you can't protect your data from a hostile VPS provider.
        
         | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
         | I once asked Hetzner, do they have protections in place against
         | a rogue employee peeking at data inside my servers, as I was
         | worried about some sensitive data stored in there. Their
         | response was: "If you are asking that question, you are
         | probably mining crypto, so we'll ban you".
        
       | traceroute66 wrote:
       | I'm not seeking to defend Vultr here, but perhaps people need to
       | think about this in a sensible manner.
       | 
       | Given the way of today's internet, with GPT-bots crawling your
       | stuff without your permission to use in their services, and with
       | search-engines crawling and generally providing means of content
       | removal that have limited effect .... what else are Vultr
       | supposed to do ?
       | 
       | If you are granting them permission to, for example, "display"
       | your content. Then there's not much they can do if you cancel
       | your Vultr account but your content remains part of the GPT
       | training material ?
        
         | groestl wrote:
         | "commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems
         | appropriate" is not at all related to CYA wrt crawlers.
        
         | citruscomputing wrote:
         | I run my private nextcloud server on vultr. Everything is
         | behind a login wall. They absolutely do not have my permission
         | to use my years of notes, legal documents, calendar
         | information, and photos (most of which have never been posted
         | publicly) in any way!
         | 
         | > what else are Vultr supposed to do ? Continue providing the
         | services they do, with reasonable terms, or die. No, you can't
         | just up and take all my photos and sell them to some AI
         | training dataset because you wanted more money. Sorry!
        
           | neoecos wrote:
           | What are you planning to do? I'm in the same situation, but
           | without accepting the terms i'm no even able to "delete" my
           | server/account. (already backing up things to move away)
        
       | madsbuch wrote:
       | From one of the Reddit commenters:
       | 
       | > Edit: As an EU customer, and having called my lawyer really
       | quickly, we don't even think that this is legal / would hold up
       | in court in the EU. Also they'd have been required to summarise
       | the TOS changes as by our local law.
       | 
       | While companies can write whatever they want in their TOS, I
       | would wary using the rights I just gave to myself. It can be
       | devastating.
        
         | vsnf wrote:
         | I'm conflicted on comments like that. On one hand, companies
         | make mistakes otherwise they'd never lose in court, but they do
         | from time to time. On the other hand, Vultr has their own
         | lawyers, presumably higher paid and better armed than an
         | individual would have access to, so how confident can one be
         | that their personal lawyer has a better legal theory than the
         | corporate lawyers?
        
           | lompad wrote:
           | Happens a lot, mostly when US Companies with a majority of
           | their customers in the US make changes without thinking about
           | other countries/ taking them seriously.
           | 
           | Additionally, ToS really don't count for much in the EU,
           | they're usually not enforcable anyway, if there's anything
           | out of the ordinary at all. There's a whole lot of stuff in
           | ToS nobody is ever going to be able to enforce at all.
           | 
           | They probably expected to fly under the radar, without making
           | sure it's even okay everywhere. Well, that's not going to
           | happen I guess.
        
             | ehnto wrote:
             | I suppose it doesn't make a material difference if it's
             | enforceable, since if you have personal data on their
             | platform right now you have to assume it's been accessed or
             | consumed in some form.
             | 
             | They obviously had an inent to start using the data for
             | something, and given what I know about tech businesses, I
             | wouldn't assume they only started once the ToS change was
             | made. I would consider my data compromised.
        
           | doctor_eval wrote:
           | Well I think the Reddit commentator is probably right, but
           | these TOS significantly increase the risk of using Vultr,
           | regardless of the legality in whichever jurisdiction.
           | 
           | The problem is that if Vultr really thinks it can exercise
           | these rights, then there is a risk that proprietary
           | information stored on their servers will be made public --
           | despite what EU or any other laws might say.
           | 
           | It doesn't really matter if you can take them to court if
           | Vultr causes a data leak that results in the loss all your
           | customers. And most of us don't have the resources to be able
           | to do that anyway.
           | 
           | All of that said. I've found Vultr really good to work with
           | and I am crossing my fingers, though not assuming, that this
           | is a mistake.
           | 
           | I've raised a ticket with them, and I'll give them a couple
           | of weeks before I make plans to pull out. Fortunately I'm
           | still in stealth mode and have zero customers, so I can
           | afford to wait. I'd be absolutely freaking out right now if I
           | had live customers.
        
             | madsbuch wrote:
             | I think this is insightful.
             | 
             | What a company write in their TOS is an indication of what
             | they intend to do. Broad scopes also means broad intentions
             | (like startups).
             | 
             | You could read into that, that Vultr is intending to break
             | the law in the EU, however little there is to do about it.
             | 
             | Its a liability for the customers knowing this. But it is
             | also a liability for Vultr who will see it more difficult
             | to establish in the EU, should that ever be wanted.
        
           | yreg wrote:
           | It's not even about how much paid/skilled they are.
           | 
           | The new ToS were surely a big project with tens of hours (or
           | more) of research done for it.
           | 
           | The redditor's lawyer just picked up a phone and offered some
           | gut response. My lawyer friends are happy to share their
           | thoughts, but they usually tell me that they need to do
           | research to provide reliable guidance.
        
       | lompad wrote:
       | That particular Vulture certainly won't fly in the EU.
       | 
       | Without a simple summarization for end users you can't just hide
       | "unexpected" things in ToS-updates. And, well, a cloud-hoster
       | deciding randomy to own your content hosted on servers you pay
       | for is certainly neither expected nor typical.
       | 
       | Good luck enforcing anything of that, vultr.
        
       | doctor_eval wrote:
       | That's remarkable. I'm a huge fan of vultr and I don't want to
       | believe that this has been done in bad faith, but of course long
       | experience sadly suggests otherwise.
       | 
       | That said, due to the type of service they provide, vultr
       | customers like myself don't necessarily even have the right to
       | grant them the rights that they claim here. If I run a SaaS and
       | people are uploading photos for work (eg photos of property
       | damage for the purposes of identifying and repairing it), those
       | photos are not my property and must not become public. The idea
       | that this could ever be OK is batshit insane.
       | 
       | So I hope/suspect this policy is going to be reverted pretty
       | quickly, since it seems quite incompatible with their core
       | business.
       | 
       | No way can I risk my customers data being "publicly displayed"!
        
       | chrisjj wrote:
       | Corrected link:
       | https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1bouuv7/warning...
        
         | VonNaturAustre wrote:
         | Thanks!
        
       | Havoc wrote:
       | That's one way to ensure your company only hosts worthless shit.
       | 
       | I doubt the random blogs etc had much AI training value in the
       | first place so this very much feels like an own goal
        
       | lcnmrn wrote:
       | I need new hosting service for Subreply. Any good providers?
        
         | richin13 wrote:
         | I've been using linode without any issues.
        
           | bravetraveler wrote:
           | Do they still demand control over disk layouts?
           | 
           | I left because I couldn't use LVM, the fact they need to know
           | disk geometry for a VM never sat well with me.
           | 
           | I'm under no illusion, I know the host needs to be trusted,
           | but this is a weird/gross implementation.
        
         | 65 wrote:
         | DigitalOcean App Platform is pretty good. Easy to use.
        
       | diggan wrote:
       | Not sure it says what you think/want it to say:
       | 
       | > You are responsible for the information, text, opinions,
       | messages, comments, audio visual works, motion pictures,
       | photographs, animation, videos, graphics, sounds, music,
       | software, Apps, and any other content or material that
       | 
       | That's the prefix to your first paragraph, meaning you as the
       | user is responsible for that, not that Vultr is responsible for
       | that.
       | 
       | Your second paragraph is explicitly about "for purposes of
       | providing the Services to you" which it'd be really hard to argue
       | that "using your user's uploaded photo for Vultr's marketing
       | promotion" is for the purpose of providing a service to you, so I
       | don't think you have to be afraid of that.
       | 
       | I'm sure Vultr's terms and conditions contain horrible shit, just
       | like any other terms and conditions. But I don't think those two
       | paragraphs highlight anything more nefarious than usual.
        
         | TomSwirly wrote:
         | You missed the "in any way that Vultr deems appropriate"
         | clause. This is a classic weasel phrase which means they can do
         | as they please.
         | 
         | "Why did you sell my data to an AI company?" "We deemed it
         | appropriate."
         | 
         | There is also the sublicensing clause, which means they can
         | sell it to anyone, and "process, adapt, [...] modify, prepare
         | derivative works", which has nothing to do with hosting, but
         | allows them to change your data and reuse it for any purpose
         | they "deem appropriate".
        
           | diggan wrote:
           | > You missed the "in any way that Vultr deems appropriate"
           | clause. This is a classic weasel phrase which means they can
           | do as they please.
           | 
           | No, I didn't, but you again missed the full context. Neither
           | of those terms can be considered in isolation, so again:
           | 
           | > You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive [...] in any way
           | that Vultr deems appropriate [...] for purposes of providing
           | the Services to you
           | 
           | So unless it's for the purpose of providing you the service,
           | it doesn't matter what Vultr "deems" appropriate.
           | 
           | Feel free to check this with a lawyer if you feel unsure.
        
             | TomSwirly wrote:
             | I did not miss the full context.
             | 
             | "Deemed" in particular doesn't require any sort of
             | reasoning or argument for the company to make any decision
             | it likes. And "appropriate" is not a synonym for
             | "necessary".
             | 
             | "Why did you sell my data?" "We deemed it appropriate for
             | the purposes of providing the Services to you."
             | 
             | What's your legal refutation to this under US law?
             | 
             | (In the EU, this whole clause would possibly be
             | unenforceable from the start, but I know a lot less about
             | EU law.)
        
       | j16sdiz wrote:
       | The cause is retrained by
       | 
       | "... for purposes of providing the Services to you."
       | 
       | if you take the narrowest read, it would allow them to store or
       | cache them. That's it.
        
         | TomSwirly wrote:
         | The phrase "in any way that Vultr deems appropriate" does not
         | encourage a narrow read.
         | 
         | It is a wildcard that allows them to do whatever they want with
         | the data and then argue, "We deemed it appropriate."
        
         | SuperNinKenDo wrote:
         | To speak Laconically: If.
        
       | vxxzy wrote:
       | Well, time to move away from Vultr. Luckily I don't have too much
       | over there other than some small projects.
        
       | freitzkriesler2 wrote:
       | Fitting for a company named vulture.
        
       | hattchett wrote:
       | This passage is a clause from a legal agreement, typically found
       | in the terms of service for a platform or service provider like
       | Vultr. It outlines the rights you, as a user, are granting to
       | Vultr regarding any content you create or upload while using
       | their services. Let's break it down for clarity:
       | 
       | Non-exclusive: Vultr does not have exclusive rights to your
       | content. You can grant similar rights to others.
       | 
       | Perpetual: The rights you grant are everlasting.
       | 
       | Irrevocable: You cannot take back these rights once they are
       | granted.
       | 
       | Royalty-free: Vultr does not have to pay you for the use of your
       | content.
       | 
       | Fully paid-up: No future payments will be required from Vultr to
       | you for the use of your content.
       | 
       | Worldwide license: Vultr can use your content anywhere in the
       | world.
       | 
       | Right to sublicense through multiple tiers: Vultr can grant these
       | rights to other parties, who can then grant them to further
       | parties, and so on.
       | 
       | To use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly
       | display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit, and
       | distribute your content: Vultr can do just about anything with
       | your content, including modifying it and sharing it, in any
       | current or future media or format.
       | 
       | In any way that Vultr deems appropriate: Vultr has the discretion
       | to use your content however it sees fit.
       | 
       | Without any further consent, notice, and/or compensation to you
       | or to any third parties: Vultr does not need to ask for your
       | permission, inform you, or pay you or anyone else to exercise
       | these rights.
       | 
       | For purposes of providing the Services to you: The clause often
       | stipulates that these rights are granted to Vultr so they can
       | operate, improve, and promote their services effectively.
       | 
       | This type of clause is common in the terms of service for online
       | platforms and services. It essentially allows the service
       | provider to operate their platform efficiently, showcase user-
       | generated content, and adapt and improve services without needing
       | to seek permission from users each time they need to handle
       | content. It's important for users to understand these terms, as
       | they significantly affect how one's content can be used and
       | shared by the service provider.
        
         | red-iron-pine wrote:
         | legal discovery software, man. we'll see if those lawyers can
         | still demand 400/hr in the future.
         | 
         | ChatGPT may eat those legal disco companies, too
        
           | hattchett wrote:
           | Yup
        
         | donmcronald wrote:
         | > typically found in the terms of service for a platform or
         | service provider like Vultr
         | 
         | > showcase user-generated content
         | 
         | What? Am I unaware of some service they offer? I don't want an
         | infrastructure provider doing _anything_ with my content. They
         | shouldn 't even have access to anything that's not publicly
         | accessible unless someone needs one-off access to help with a
         | support incident.
         | 
         | It's not "content" for a lot of customers. It's private,
         | proprietary information. What if someone is using Vultr to host
         | an app for a company that requires an NDA from the webdev? Are
         | they stuck in limbo as of right now?
         | 
         | The Vultr account owner might not even be the owner of the data
         | hosted in the account. The whole thing is crazy. How are there
         | people here defending this as "normal"?
        
         | groestl wrote:
         | [typically found in the terms of service] [Let's break it down
         | for clarity] [This type of clause is common in the terms of
         | service for online platforms] [It's important for users]
         | 
         | This comment reeks like ChatGPT generated content, tbh.
        
       | pull_my_finger wrote:
       | Everyone (maybe rightfully) up in arms, but I imagine you would
       | need an agreement like this is they were finally getting on board
       | with something like elastic compute. Everytime they spin up a new
       | machine on your behalf they're essentially redistributing all the
       | files on that machine. I understand everyones gun shy, but I've
       | been using Vultr for years and I'm much less suspicious of them
       | than the likes of google/amazon. I've personally never had an
       | issue with them, but I definitely think it's a healthy response
       | to go fight or flight when you're essentially signing all your
       | rights away.
        
         | jasonjayr wrote:
         | Sure, but "Irrevocable?" That's a hard no.
        
         | boutell wrote:
         | "prepare derivative works"? Also a hard no.
        
         | thecodeassassin wrote:
         | This is not boilerplate, otherwise every cloud provider would
         | have this and they do not. This problem can be solved by much
         | less broad terms.
        
         | YeBanKo wrote:
         | > commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems
         | appropriate
         | 
         | How does this maps to adding another node in the compute
         | 
         | Also, why perpetual?
         | 
         | They are essentially data processor, they act on your behalf
         | and should not do things with data that you have not asked for.
        
       | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
       | Let's do one thing, host Nintendo content and since vultr now has
       | commercial rights over "my uploads" let's see how Nintendo bites
       | them in the ass. This can be done and dusted in a few days given
       | enough traction
        
       | hattchett wrote:
       | I look at it like this, if your data is on the internet, anyone
       | can do anything they want with it, period.
        
         | groestl wrote:
         | Not legally.
        
       | hobotime wrote:
       | This is a standard clause so you can't sue them for providing
       | pirated stuff when you our your users placed it on their servers.
       | 
       | That's why is proceeded by "for purposes of providing the
       | Services to you"
       | 
       | Nothing here... move away from the fake outrage.
        
         | Havoc wrote:
         | > This is a standard clause so you can't sue them for providing
         | pirated stuff
         | 
         | Rubbish. That wouldn't require an explicit and broad right to
         | commercialise and profit from your content
         | 
         | The small portion dealing with piracy isn't what the uproar is
         | a out
        
         | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
         | So are they afraid that Warner uploads Dune 2 torrent to their
         | servers and immediately sues them for distribution? And to
         | protect against that, they reserve the right to create Dune 3
         | out of it using Sora and distribute that themselves?
        
       | lincm83hey wrote:
       | I mean, if anybody's surprised, their name is literally a
       | dehydrated version of the word "vulture"
        
       | retox wrote:
       | The language seems have been added mid-2021, so it's not new.
        
       | not-duckie wrote:
       | i just migrated to vultr cause of minial api and interface.
       | really hate it when stakeholders make founders take foolish
       | decision :/. guess I'll use linode or something now
        
         | VonNaturAustre wrote:
         | I agreed!
        
       | cozzyd wrote:
       | Keep calm and carrion
        
       | supriyo-biswas wrote:
       | I wish people stopped posting threads from Reddit, because they
       | are either full of unverifiable claims (like a post from some
       | time ago that claimed a coworker was messing around with their
       | computer for the last five years), or in this case, outrage
       | sought for the sake of outrage and disregarding the context due
       | to which it has arisen.
       | 
       | In this case, I believe this is due to the introduction of their
       | CDN product, though it would also apply to their object storage
       | product as well.
        
         | soraminazuki wrote:
         | And while we're at it, people should automatically disregard
         | what others say because human beings are known to be dishonest.
         | See the problem?
         | 
         | Your blanket claim regarding unverifiability is especially
         | astounding because this one is easily verifiable. The evidence
         | is right here, for everyone to see.
         | 
         | https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/
         | 
         | Speaking of unverifiable claims,
         | 
         | > In this case, I believe this is due to the introduction of
         | their CDN product
         | 
         | That's pure guessing. More importantly, it doesn't change the
         | egregiousness of this ToS is even if that's the case.
         | 
         | Also,
         | 
         | > disregarding the context due to which it has arisen
         | 
         | There is absolutely no context in which screwing over customers
         | like that is okay.
        
       | adamredwoods wrote:
       | I'm not a lawyer, I don't know what that means, but it is
       | disturbing enough to make me leave. If they don't want me to
       | leave, they should clarify their intent.
       | 
       | Part 12.1: User Content
       | 
       | https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | It is clarified
         | 
         | >You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual,
         | irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license
         | (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to
         | use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly
         | display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit
         | and distribute each of your User Content, or any portion
         | thereof, in any form, medium or distribution method now known
         | or hereafter existing, known or developed, and otherwise use
         | and commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems
         | appropriate, without any further consent, notice and/or
         | compensation to you or to any third parties, _for purposes of
         | providing the Services to you._
         | 
         | Emphasis mine. They have a perpetual license, but only for the
         | purpose of providing services to you. This is a clause and many
         | TOS, presumably to avoid copyright suits.
        
           | maronato wrote:
           | Services is a very generic term for anything they offer. They
           | can, for example, offer a free non optional AI tool that
           | allows you to ask questions about the data in your database.
           | 
           | My non-lawyer understanding of the policy is that, for the
           | purpose of providing you with this service, they have the
           | right to use your entire database to train and test the tool.
           | They can even make a contract with OpenAI and sell your data
           | to them for the purposes of building the AI service.
           | 
           | And it's perpetual and irrevocable, so they can keep their
           | models trained with your data if you decide to leave.
        
           | adamredwoods wrote:
           | I could not find anything similar in Linode (Akamai) TOS:
           | 
           | https://www.linode.com/legal/
           | 
           | Nor does AWS, that I could find, except with the PartyRock
           | created apps:
           | 
           | https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | That's why I said "many", not "most". Here's what I turned
             | up in a few minutes of searching:
             | 
             | https://www.cloudflare.com/en-in/terms/
             | 
             | >2.5 Customer Content and Network Data
             | 
             | >2.5.1
             | 
             | >You and your End Users (as such term is defined in the
             | Privacy Policy) will retain all right, title and interest
             | in and to any data, content, code, video, images or other
             | materials of any type that you or your End Users transmit
             | to or through the Services (collectively, "Customer
             | Content") in the form provided to Cloudflare. Subject to
             | the terms of this Agreement, you hereby grant us a non-
             | exclusive, fully sublicensable, worldwide, royalty-free
             | right to collect, use, copy, store, transmit, modify and
             | create derivative works of Customer Content, in each case
             | to the extent necessary to provide the Services.
             | 
             | https://explore.zoom.us/en/terms/
             | 
             | >10.2 Permitted Uses and Customer License Grant. Zoom will
             | only access, process or use Customer Content for the
             | following reasons (the "Permitted Uses"): (i) consistent
             | with this Agreement and as required to perform our
             | obligations and provide the Services; (ii) in accordance
             | with our Privacy Statement; (iii) as authorized or
             | instructed by you; (iv) as required by Law; or (v) for
             | legal, safety or security purposes, including enforcing our
             | Acceptable Use Guidelines. You grant Zoom a perpetual,
             | worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and
             | transferable license and all other rights required or
             | necessary for the Permitted Uses.
             | 
             | https://www.notion.so/notion/Master-Subscription-
             | Agreement-4...
             | 
             | >3.1 Customer Data. Customer and its licensors own the
             | Customer Data, including all Intellectual Property Rights
             | therein. No ownership rights in the Customer Data are
             | transferred to Notion by this Agreement. Customer hereby
             | grants Notion a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable,
             | royalty-free, fully-paid, sublicensable (to Notion's third-
             | party service providers) license to host, store, transfer,
             | display, perform, reproduce, modify, create derivative
             | works of, and distribute Customer Data in connection with
             | its provision of the Services to Customer. [...]
             | 
             | https://huggingface.co/terms-of-service
             | 
             | >You hereby grant us a worldwide, royalty-free and non-
             | exclusive license to use, display, publish, reproduce,
             | distribute, and make derivative works of such Content to
             | provide Services and as otherwise permitted under these
             | Terms and our Privacy Policy; and,
             | 
             | https://www.servicenow.com/content/dam/servicenow-
             | assets/pub...
             | 
             | >5.2 CUSTOMER OWNERSHIP. As between the parties, Customer
             | and its licensors will retain all right, title, and
             | interest in
             | 
             | >and to all IPR in Customer Data and Customer Technology.
             | Customer grants to ServiceNow a royalty-free, fully paid,
             | non-exclusive,
             | 
             | >non-transferrable (except under Section 11.1), worldwide,
             | right to use Customer Data and Customer Technology solely
             | to provide
             | 
             | >and support the Software.
        
               | adamredwoods wrote:
               | I will argue that each of these examples you've listed
               | has a clearer intent listed. "for purposes of providing
               | the Services" versus "solely to provide and support the
               | Software".
               | 
               | None of them go so far as to say: "and otherwise use and
               | commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr
               | deems appropriate"
               | 
               | Again, I'm not a lawyer, nor looking to become one, so
               | anything that seems unusual, should be taken with caution
               | in order to protect myself and my IP. I've seen what
               | companies have done to independent developers, and I
               | don't want to suffer a similar fate, only because I
               | couldn't interpret TOS accurately.
        
       | maronato wrote:
       | "You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual,
       | irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license
       | (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to
       | use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly
       | display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit and
       | distribute each of your User Content, or any portion thereof, in
       | any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter
       | existing, known or developed, and otherwise use and commercialize
       | the User Content in any way that Vultr deems appropriate, without
       | any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any
       | third parties, for purposes of providing the Services to you."
       | 
       | Section 12, https://www.vultr.com/legal/tos/
        
       | YeBanKo wrote:
       | Why is this submission flagged?
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We can only guess why users flag things, but in this case I'd
         | guess it was because the submitted link
         | (https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/s/3CgRd01Ypw) just
         | redirects to a login screen: https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhoste
         | d/login/?dest=https%3A%2F%....
         | 
         | Googling the title leads to https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted
         | /comments/1bouuv7/warning..., which I guess is the same
         | content? We can change the URL to that above.
         | 
         | Edit: oh, and I see several other commenters in the thread were
         | already linking to that URL.
        
           | YeBanKo wrote:
           | Maybe it's too late, but I think it would make sense to
           | update the link.
        
             | dang wrote:
             | Yes, I did.
        
           | mindslight wrote:
           | That new URL still just goes to a login screen. I believe
           | this is due to recent reddit policy change.
           | 
           | > _whoa there, pardner! Your request has been blocked due to
           | a network policy. Try logging in or creating an account here
           | to get back to browsing._
           | 
           | It seems that reddit has now followed Xitter with requiring
           | logins to drive engagement numbers, effectively rejecting the
           | open web. Extractive screw turning was probably inevitable
           | with the naive central-server design of webapps, but going
           | through the destruction part of creative destruction still
           | sucks.
        
       | adamredwoods wrote:
       | I could not find anything similar in Linode (Akamai) TOS:
       | 
       | https://www.linode.com/legal/
       | 
       | Nor does AWS, that I could find, except with the PartyRock
       | created apps:
       | 
       | https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/
       | 
       | Both of the above TOS explain intent, for example, to monitor
       | data services for metrics. Vultr's clause (12.1) does not explain
       | intent. The phrase "for purposes of providing services" is a
       | vague intent.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | 7.3 of Linode might be it.
         | 
         | Cloudflare #2 certainly is it:
         | https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/
        
           | adamredwoods wrote:
           | Someone else noted Cloudflare:
           | 
           | >> You and your End Users (as such term is defined in the
           | Privacy Policy) will retain all right, title and interest in
           | and to any data, content, code, video, images or other
           | materials of any type that you or your End Users transmit to
           | or through the Services (collectively, "Customer Content") in
           | the form provided to Cloudflare. Subject to the terms of this
           | Agreement, you hereby grant us a non-exclusive, fully
           | sublicensable, worldwide, royalty-free right to collect, use,
           | copy, store, transmit, modify and create derivative works of
           | Customer Content, in each case to the extent necessary to
           | provide the Services.
           | 
           | but doesn't state as Vultr did: "and otherwise use and
           | commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems
           | appropriate" and Cloudflare uses the term "to the extent
           | necessary" which to me seems more specific than a vague
           | wording of "for providing services".
           | 
           | I'm not a lawyer, I'm interpreting this to the best of my
           | abilities. In general, if something feels odd, it's best to
           | back away.
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | What are the best VPS' these days who stay out of your hair and
       | protect users?
        
         | jamesnorden wrote:
         | BuyVM (Frantech) is a good one, you can get a lot of cheap
         | storage "blocks" even on the lowest plan, if you wish.
        
           | Havoc wrote:
           | Think he recently sold the company
        
       | edgoode wrote:
       | If you're looking for a new GPU cloud because of this, we've put
       | all these providers in on place, console, and API so you can find
       | a new one for your needs at https://shadeform.ai
       | 
       | * I'm one of the founders
        
       | stackskipton wrote:
       | Worth noting that Vultr has responded and modified their TOS to
       | remove those terms.
       | 
       | https://www.vultr.com/news/A-Note-About-Vultrs-Terms-of-Serv...
        
         | neoecos wrote:
         | So... it was a legalese
        
           | willio58 wrote:
           | We need regulation around this sooo bad. Nobody reads TOS, or
           | at least 99.9999% of people don't because it's simply too
           | much. It's unreasonable to expect people to read these long
           | documents and understand what they mean. We need requirements
           | of high-level overviews in very plain language. Slimming this
           | stuff down and removing BS lawyer fluff is the only way in my
           | eyes.
        
             | Terr_ wrote:
             | In a way it's a failure of precedent rather than
             | regulation, since ideally the judge would throw some of
             | these contracts out the same as if they had special clauses
             | in microscopic font.
        
       | barryfarling wrote:
       | Would anyone work with these people after they did this? They
       | pivoted because they got caught, not because they are trust
       | worthy. They clearly thought a lot, in concert with counsel,
       | about how they could try to steal people's IP. Geniuses thought
       | no one would read the TOS.
        
       | fsck_vultr wrote:
       | If you have a valid API key, this still works. If you delete node
       | in the dev tools, you can see the page behind it - but it still
       | comes back on the next page.
        
       | fabianholzer wrote:
       | Nomen est omen, it seems?
        
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