4 ms·
They don't make it easy to find out what the Microsoft Research License Agreement is, when they put it behind a login wall on a site that doesn't work with ad-b
by rspeer 8y ago
They don't make it easy to find out what the Microsoft Research License Agreement is, when they put it behind a login wall on a site that doesn't work with ad-block. But this appears to be a copy of it: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~aditya/langid/msrla.txt http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~aditya/langid/msrla.txt
These license terms are a trap. Nobody should ever accept them.
You can't use the data for commercial purposes, which is harsh enough on its own -- it means the data should only be interesting to people who plan to be academics permanently, or who don't plan to succeed at anything they do with it.
You can't even open-source anything you make out of it, because open source software does not restrict the purpose for which it's used. You can't combine it with data under any Creative Commons license except CC-By or CC-0, because its restrictions are definitely not Creative Commons compatible.
The truly insulting part is that you have to give an unrestricted license back to Microsoft for everything you make out of this data. You can't benefit from what you make out of the data, but Microsoft can, with no limitations.
Whatever you make from this data, you can't benefit from it. Most other people can't benefit from it. Microsoft can benefit from it, and if they want to, they can just take it without crediting you.
This is like an artist being asked to do something "for the exposure", by someone who will just take it and give you no exposure.
- berti 8y ago"We're all in on open source." [1] Thanks for taking the effort to check. :) I believe this kind of attitude from MS is pretty problematic for Github. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-on-github-we-are-all-in-on-open-source.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-...
- rspeer 8y agoWhile I find it awful that this particular department of Microsoft is offering "free data" with poisonous terms, I see no reason to believe it has anything to do with GitHub. Microsoft is a big place.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- quickben 8y agoI thought you are overreacting until I reached this part : " 3. That Microsoft is granted back, without any restrictions or limitations, a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, assignable and sub-licensable license, to reproduce, publicly perform or display, install, use, modify, post, distribute, make and have made, sell and transfer your modifications to and/or derivative works of the Data, including but not limited to the results and analysis of any tests that are run by or conducted by you with or for the Data, for any purpose." "Not limited" - so basically any software processing it.
- jongalloway2 8y agoIt's a different license. Here's a direct link to the Microsoft Research Data License Agreement (PDF): https://msrodr-api.azurewebsites.net//licenses/2f933be3-284d-500b-7ea3-2aa2fd0f1bb2/file https://msrodr-api.azurewebsites.net//licenses/2f933be3-284d... Disclaimer: I don't know if this affects your concerns, but it's at least the right license. Disclaimer 2: I work for Microsoft, but not for MSR, and don't know anything specific about this.
- rspeer 8y agoThanks for the link. This version of the license has the same terms and then several more, including: - If we accidentally gave you people's personal identifying information, it's your job to destroy it - Your license to us is perpetual but our license to you terminates after 2 years (?!) - The data is confidential and you may not talk about it for 5 years (OMG WTF)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jonhendry18 8y ago"You can't use the data for commercial purposes, which is harsh enough on its own -- it means the data should only be interesting to people who plan to be academics permanently, or who don't plan to succeed at anything they do with it." It'd also be useful for someone farting around with machine learning who isn't anywhere close to being at a point of shipping anything to anyone else. What you can benefit from is what you learn while using the data. Then you start a new project using what you've learned, and using different data.
- rspeer 8y agoWhy would you plan to fail? You could just use different data from the start that doesn't require you to sign an NDA. It's not like MSR is providing a rare commodity.
- jonhendry18 8y ago"Why would you plan to fail?" Because it isn't failure if your only goal is to learn.
- nerdponx 8y agoIt'd also be useful for someone farting around with machine learning who isn't anywhere close to being at a point of shipping anything to anyone else. This is the only use I can see for this data under those license terms. And even then, you are still technically granting Microsoft a super-license to do whatever they want with whatever you come up with, and probably also not allowed to upload it to Github.