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Apparently, people are generally fine with it. You will routinely hear nowadays that private agreements cannot trample on free speech because that only applies

by blfr 12y ago

Apparently, people are generally fine with it. You will routinely hear nowadays that private agreements cannot trample on free speech because that only applies to governments. This argument even made its way to xkcd. http://xkcd.com/1357/ http://xkcd.com/1357/ The other issues are largely trade-offs. How much piracy are you willing to accept? How does it affect sales and availability of software for the platform? How soon should we patch? Right away or on Patch Tuesday? How thoroughly should we test? How much instability are we willing to tolerate? And so on.

Gracana 12y ago
> You will routinely hear nowadays that private agreements cannot trample on free speech That comic is a response to people complaining about "freedom of speech" after their harassing comments have been removed from a forum or article comment thread. I'm not sure the same line of thinking translates so directly to a corporate software development license agreement.
- blfr 12y ago
  What about getting fired. How many e-dramas have we seen lately over someone tweeting and losing their job? That's about as serious as a license agreement for someone doing iOS development as a full-time gig.
- delinka 12y ago
  "The right to free speech means the government can't arrest you for what you say." It doesn't mean anyone else has to tolerate what you say. It doesn't mean a contract between private parties (i.e. not a contract with a gov't entity) can't dictate the things you may or may not discuss about the parties or the agreement itself. In other words: "free speech" has nothing to do with anything except whether the government can arrest you for running your yap. Which further means a corporate software development license agreement can stipulate anything it wants. And you are free not to accept that agreement and not partake of the benefits the agreement bestows.
jackweirdy 12y ago
Also, there’s a difference between “Free Speech” as an ideal, and it’s implementation or lack thereof in law (e.g. First Amendment to the Constitution of the US, Article 10 European Convention Human Rights, etc.)

by blfr 12y ago

Gracana 12y ago

> You will routinely hear nowadays that private agreements cannot trample on free speech That comic is a response to people complaining about "freedom of speech" after their harassing comments have been removed from a forum or article comment thread. I'm not sure the same line of thinking translates so directly to a corporate software development license agreement.

blfr 12y ago
What about getting fired. How many e-dramas have we seen lately over someone tweeting and losing their job? That's about as serious as a license agreement for someone doing iOS development as a full-time gig.
delinka 12y ago
"The right to free speech means the government can't arrest you for what you say." It doesn't mean anyone else has to tolerate what you say. It doesn't mean a contract between private parties (i.e. not a contract with a gov't entity) can't dictate the things you may or may not discuss about the parties or the agreement itself. In other words: "free speech" has nothing to do with anything except whether the government can arrest you for running your yap. Which further means a corporate software development license agreement can stipulate anything it wants. And you are free not to accept that agreement and not partake of the benefits the agreement bestows.

jackweirdy 12y ago

Also, there’s a difference between “Free Speech” as an ideal, and it’s implementation or lack thereof in law (e.g. First Amendment to the Constitution of the US, Article 10 European Convention Human Rights, etc.)