5 ms·

I might be wrong, but this probably violates the terms of service if you're serving pages to more than a few visitors.

teej 18y ago
Yeah, using DropBox as a faux-CDN is a bad idea. To quote their terms: > By placing Your Files in your public folder, you hereby grant all other Dropbox users and the public a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder But having your DropBox "repository" as your web root seems pretty slick.
- chops 18y ago
  While that sounds perfectly reasonable to me, I wonder if it's that enforceable? That sounds like the public domain to me. Can a company declare "by doing X on our system, you hereby release your IP into the public domain?"
  - ajkirwin 18y ago
    Sure they can. And you then have the choice NOT to use it.
    - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
      Please see: http://mattmaroon.com/2009/05/01/hacker-news-disease/ http://mattmaroon.com/2009/05/01/hacker-news-disease/
      - ajkirwin 18y ago
        I'm sorry, but what the hell does that have to do with my comment that a company can make you agree to licencing terms to use their product?
        ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        I read the question as being: is it legally enforceable for a company to have in their TOS that you release your IP into the public domain if you do X on their platform? Are you an IP attorney or in any way qualified to answer that question? Matt's post was about people on HN answering questions that they are in no way qualified to answer, just because they're intelligent in some other unrelated area. Your post seemed like a perfect example.
        ajkirwin 18y ago
        I would say you could easily draw a paralell between this and companies including GPL software (and their ilk) and such into products, who are then forced to comply with the licencing terms and make entire source codes available.
        ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        I think you're missing the point.
        wheels 18y ago
        Not necissarily. You can't write something into a contract that's not legal and still have that clause be enforceable. Stuff that's not legally enforceable is written into contracts all of the time. The question was whether or not this is one such clause, and the point of this sub-thread was that none of us seem to actually know the answer to that.

teej 18y ago

Yeah, using DropBox as a faux-CDN is a bad idea. To quote their terms: > By placing Your Files in your public folder, you hereby grant all other Dropbox users and the public a non-exclusive, non-commercial, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use and exploit Your Files in your public folder But having your DropBox "repository" as your web root seems pretty slick.

chops 18y ago
While that sounds perfectly reasonable to me, I wonder if it's that enforceable? That sounds like the public domain to me. Can a company declare "by doing X on our system, you hereby release your IP into the public domain?"
- ajkirwin 18y ago
  Sure they can. And you then have the choice NOT to use it.
  - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
    Please see: http://mattmaroon.com/2009/05/01/hacker-news-disease/ http://mattmaroon.com/2009/05/01/hacker-news-disease/
    - ajkirwin 18y ago
      I'm sorry, but what the hell does that have to do with my comment that a company can make you agree to licencing terms to use their product?
      - ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        I read the question as being: is it legally enforceable for a company to have in their TOS that you release your IP into the public domain if you do X on their platform? Are you an IP attorney or in any way qualified to answer that question? Matt's post was about people on HN answering questions that they are in no way qualified to answer, just because they're intelligent in some other unrelated area. Your post seemed like a perfect example.
        ajkirwin 18y ago
        I would say you could easily draw a paralell between this and companies including GPL software (and their ilk) and such into products, who are then forced to comply with the licencing terms and make entire source codes available.
        ryanwaggoner 18y ago
        I think you're missing the point.
        wheels 18y ago
        Not necissarily. You can't write something into a contract that's not legal and still have that clause be enforceable. Stuff that's not legally enforceable is written into contracts all of the time. The question was whether or not this is one such clause, and the point of this sub-thread was that none of us seem to actually know the answer to that.