Terms of Service update • Hacker News Board

Re: Terms of Service update

#41

Post by gbog » Sun, Oct 13, 2013, 1:14 AM UTC

peterjmag wrote: post #11

runako wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Plain English" is the legal equivalent of pseudocode. (By similar reasoning, the courts are analogous to CPUs.) The TOS isn't in plain English for the same reason that Android isn't written in pseudocode: the CPUs won't run it. Also -- pseudocode ignores edge cases, boundary conditions, etc. to make it readable. Production code (and legal documents) can't escape these requirements.

I really like that analogy.

Yes it is sexy, but it has the smell of a dangerous rhetoric flower.

The CPU is a machine, it is deterministic, same input yields same output.

The legal system may try to be as predictable as possible, it is still a human production built on human language, and cannot be deterministic, not even asymptotically.

Re: Terms of Service update

#42

Post by gizmo686 » Sun, Oct 13, 2013, 3:24 AM UTC

dangero wrote: post #29

runako wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Plain English" is the legal equivalent of pseudocode. (By similar reasoning, the courts are analogous to CPUs.) The TOS isn't in plain English for the same reason that Android isn't written in pseudocode: the CPUs won't run it. Also -- pseudocode ignores edge cases, boundary conditions, etc. to make it readable. Production code (and legal documents) can't escape these requirements.

If they write a summary of the TOS for a user to read "instead" aren't they then legally bound to their summary?

Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer.

They are not making any attempt for the summary to replace the TOS, rather it is intended as a summary for user convenience. I imagine that the only way that they could run into trouble is if someone showed that they deliberately made the summary with the intention of misleading users. Also, if there is an ambiguity in there TOS, then the summary may be invoked when clarifying it, however it seems extremely unlikely that that would happen.

Re: Terms of Service update

#43

Post by mcescalante » Sun, Oct 13, 2013, 2:25 PM UTC

joosters wrote: post #20

mcescalante wrote: post #13

I wish other companies would borrow this "format" when they update their ToS. Even providing an easily accessible diff without me doing the work would be helpful. Too many times have I clicked on a ToS update to be directed to the new terms with a short note saying they're being updated on a certain date.

Use the wonderful Docracy Terms of Service Tracker: https://www.docracy.com/tos/changes They provide handy diffs of hundreds of sites' ToS and privacy policies (and you can mail them to add others). You can also get Docracy to mail you when selected sites update their ToS. [EDIT] - hmm, last updated in July, looks like they might have abandoned it :(

It seems to have been updated on October 11th... this site definitely will come in handy.