3 ms·

The law has nothing to do with it. Amazon is a private company and can make rules about who can or can't place orders on its website. When you create an account

by paxys 1y ago

The law has nothing to do with it. Amazon is a private company and can make rules about who can or can't place orders on its website. When you create an account you agree to their ToS.

kelnos 1y ago
I don't think GP meant "legal" in the literal sense. Regardless, the post's meaning is still the same if you replace "Is this legal?" with "Does this conform to Amazon's ToS?", so please read it charitably and avoid being pedantic about this sort of thing.
- thrill 1y ago
  Legal matters are all about pedantry.
andreybaskov 1y ago
Interesting. Amazon ToS actually has a section about agents - https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLSBYFE9MGKKQXXM https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... And they even provide a definition of what an Agent is: "Agent” means any software or service that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action on behalf of, or at the instruction of, any person or entity. Though to me it raises even more questions. What is a software that takes "autonomous" action on my behalf. Is curl "autonomous"?
- afandian 1y ago
  > Is curl "autonomous"? Only when you supply -L
- paxys 1y ago
  "autonomous or semi-autonomous" is the key phrase. If you manually invoke a curl command then no, it isn't an agent. If you write code that itself determines when and how to invoke that command then it is.
  - anon84873628 1y ago
    Am I not manually instructing the agent to buy a certain product? What if I set up a cron job to buy a certain product every month - is that not autonomous? What if it is first querying my live toilet paper sticks to make the decision?
    - andreybaskov 1y ago
      Exactly. It's software - `curl` or LLM. It's a function that accepts input and produces output. One is much more sophisticated that the other, but it's made out of the same machine instructions, there is no magic. What's the criteria that makes one function "autonomous" and the other one "manual"? I feel it really boils down to this.

by paxys 1y ago

The law has nothing to do with it. Amazon is a private company and can make rules about who can or can't place orders on its website. When you create an account you agree to their ToS.

kelnos 1y ago

I don't think GP meant "legal" in the literal sense. Regardless, the post's meaning is still the same if you replace "Is this legal?" with "Does this conform to Amazon's ToS?", so please read it charitably and avoid being pedantic about this sort of thing.

thrill 1y ago
Legal matters are all about pedantry.

andreybaskov 1y ago

Interesting. Amazon ToS actually has a section about agents - https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLSBYFE9MGKKQXXM https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... And they even provide a definition of what an Agent is: "Agent” means any software or service that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action on behalf of, or at the instruction of, any person or entity. Though to me it raises even more questions. What is a software that takes "autonomous" action on my behalf. Is curl "autonomous"?

afandian 1y ago
> Is curl "autonomous"? Only when you supply -L
paxys 1y ago
"autonomous or semi-autonomous" is the key phrase. If you manually invoke a curl command then no, it isn't an agent. If you write code that itself determines when and how to invoke that command then it is.
- anon84873628 1y ago
  Am I not manually instructing the agent to buy a certain product? What if I set up a cron job to buy a certain product every month - is that not autonomous? What if it is first querying my live toilet paper sticks to make the decision?
  - andreybaskov 1y ago
    Exactly. It's software - `curl` or LLM. It's a function that accepts input and produces output. One is much more sophisticated that the other, but it's made out of the same machine instructions, there is no magic. What's the criteria that makes one function "autonomous" and the other one "manual"? I feel it really boils down to this.