American Public Media's Future Tense program ran an interesting piece the other day on this topic and a tool from the Electronic Frontier Foundation called TOSBack:
New service tracks changes to sites' policies
June 5, 2009 | Link
Very clever. But my question is this: Do these terms of service really need to be this complex?
For an example of a more palatable TOS, visit Instructables' terrific "human readable terms of service."
Why can't more terms of service be like this?!
UPDATE (June 11, 2009): Since this post, I've been giving more thought to notion of Terms of Service...
They are obviously written for the benefit of the Web site owner (or software developer). I understand that. They have their intellectual property to protect, and possibly guard against liability. And I am sure lawyers salivate over the language used -- 100% pure legalese. All in the voice of the site or developer.
But what's missing in most of these?
They are completely one-sided with little or nothing from user/customer's perspective. No wonder no one reads them. Ever.
A parting idea. Here's an example I used a number of years ago with several books I authored:
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: You have permission to use this book in digital or printed format for instructional purposes only. Any commercial use is strictly prohibited without written consent from the author.PLAIN LANGUAGE VERSION: Use it, enjoy it, even share it. (Just not for money)
I'd love to see more of that simplicity.
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