2 ms·

This “nonexclusive worldwide license for the purpose of doing what you asked us to do” thing has bitten so many companies over the years, I can’t believe anyone

by wrs 2y ago

This “nonexclusive worldwide license for the purpose of doing what you asked us to do” thing has bitten so many companies over the years, I can’t believe anyone would obliviously put it in there at this point. I understand your IP attorney thinks you need this license to operate, but the users will definitely freak out unless you express extremely clearly what the restrictions are, and probably write a blog post explaining what it’s there for. In the current climate it will be read with the worst possible interpretation.

ryandrake 2y ago
Yea, I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here, and that this whole drama is what happens when you hand the product over to lawyers. Lawyers will always push for broad, sweeping legalese that claim everything under the sun. Lawyers don't even get out of bed before they recite the holy "nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license" prayer three times and throw salt over their shoulder. It's just second nature to them, part of their core being, to write words that give themselves everything. When you're a company and have legal counsel, you need to understand that they are just advising you, and they will always be conservative and risk-adverse. You don't have to do everything they advise.
- perlgeek 2y ago
  > Yea, I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here I could understand that if it was just the Terms of Use thingy. But if you look at the whole picture, I cannot really come to the conclusion. Why did they remove the "we won't ever sell your data" promise? Why the statements about Mozilla being/becoming an AI company?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - wrs 2y ago
    If they offer an AI feature, it will probably rely on a third party model API, so they will need a license to forward your inputs to that third party for the purpose of implementing that feature. The selling your data thing is disturbing but not necessarily related to this.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here I can't speak for what the intent is or whether or not it's ill, but that this change came about shortly after Mozilla decided that they wanted Firefox to get in on the targeted ad game seems very suspicious to me.

by wrs 2y ago

ryandrake 2y ago

Yea, I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here, and that this whole drama is what happens when you hand the product over to lawyers. Lawyers will always push for broad, sweeping legalese that claim everything under the sun. Lawyers don't even get out of bed before they recite the holy "nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license" prayer three times and throw salt over their shoulder. It's just second nature to them, part of their core being, to write words that give themselves everything. When you're a company and have legal counsel, you need to understand that they are just advising you, and they will always be conservative and risk-adverse. You don't have to do everything they advise.

perlgeek 2y ago
> Yea, I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here I could understand that if it was just the Terms of Use thingy. But if you look at the whole picture, I cannot really come to the conclusion. Why did they remove the "we won't ever sell your data" promise? Why the statements about Mozilla being/becoming an AI company?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- wrs 2y ago
  If they offer an AI feature, it will probably rely on a third party model API, so they will need a license to forward your inputs to that third party for the purpose of implementing that feature. The selling your data thing is disturbing but not necessarily related to this.
JohnFen 2y ago
> I actually happen to think that Mozilla doesn't have ill intent here I can't speak for what the intent is or whether or not it's ill, but that this change came about shortly after Mozilla decided that they wanted Firefox to get in on the targeted ad game seems very suspicious to me.