Proboards ToS change

[viruszero]

By now everyone should have seen that little blue box at the top of the page informing them of Proboard's ToS change.

I don't know how many have actually ever read Proboards ToS before... but the current one has been beefed up substantially. (Adding quite a few new sections and clauses to it. As well as being rather difficult to read with the excessive use of capitals.)
Overall it has increased in complexity.

So to distill it down a bit, what as changed? And how do these changes affect us? From the top of my head, these are the biggest changes I've noticed:

1- Proboards now allows users to use other languages on their forums. Just so long as the staff can verify that it's not breaking their ToS.

How does this affect us?
Well, even though we could allow other languages now, it would probably be best to keep it strictly to English.

2- The rules associated with user content have been vastly revised. The result is that Proboards has license to do what they want with your content.

15. USER CONTENT
...
YOU HEREBY GRANT THE PROBOARDS PARTIES A PERPETUAL, FULLY PAID-UP, WORLDWIDE, SUBLICENSABLE, IRREVOCABLE, ASSIGNABLE LICENSE TO COPY, DISTRIBUTE, TRANSMIT, PUBLICLY DISPLAY OR PERFORM, EDIT, TRANSLATE, REFORMAT AND OTHERWISE USE USER CONTENT IN CONNECTION WITH THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE, SERVICES OR ANY OTHER SIMILAR OR RELATED BUSINESS, IN ANY MEDIUM NOW EXISTING OR LATER DEVISED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IN ADVERTISING AND PUBLICITY. YOU FURTHER AGREE THAT THE PROBOARDS PARTIES MAY PUBLISH OR OTHERWISE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN CONNECTION WITH THEIR EXERCISE OF THE LICENSE GRANTED UNDER THIS SECTION.
...

So basically, the quoted sections says they get to do what they want with your content. Proboards owner, Patrick Clinger, has said that it's merely to display your content... And they have no intention of using any other way. (Even though they could if they wanted.)

How does this affect us?
Well, if you're at all worried about your content potentially being abused you may want to consider backing it up and removing it before the terms come into full effect on the [you]13th of May[/you]...


3- The inclusion of DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) policy.
Basically allows you to send reports to Proboards if you find your work has been stolen.

How does this affect us?
It doesn't, not unless someone steals from us or someone posts something stolen here.

4- The no liability for data clause. (Section 21.)
They state now that pretty much if things turn bad, they aren't responsible. If their servers die, it's our fault for any lost data because we didn't back it up.

How does this affect us?
It doesn't unless something goes wrong.

5- Fees
They've just actually stated that their services are free, but they do have paid ones and that they have the right to change how much those cost.

How does it affect us?
We're still on the free set up so unless they decide to charge for that we'll be fine. (Though if they decide to start charging for the forums, I would imagine they'd lose a lot of people quickly.)

[Chaos Tank]

Hmm, its gone now and I never clicked it. Maybe they got some complaints and will come back with a revised version.

In any case, thanks Virus for explaining the ToS update to everyone.

[viruszero]

Trust me, they've gotten a ton of complaints, but they haven't changed anything, the Terms of Service are still set to the new type...

Though another section of this I would like to call to everyone's attention (From Section 19. PROHIBITED USES.):

(d) while, using the Website and Services, use "ad blocking" software or similar built-in web browser options designed to hide, block or prevent the proper display of online advertising;

Basically they're saying it's against their Terms of Service to use an Ad blocker.

So they're dictating what sort of software you can use if you want to be a part of this forum/service.

And there is code (who's purpose is what I suspect to be) sitting on the site designed to catch people who aren't allowing the display of the ads. (Though the use of a variable system reporting to the proboards servers.)

I had actually missed this section on my earlier read throughs. (Which is partially why I believe they have formatted the ToS as such... So that people do have a more difficult time reading through it and understanding exactly what they are agreeing to. Definitely an understandable mistake considering it's now written in Legalese, which can be difficult to read on it's own, but then couple in poor text formatting and it can become a nightmare.)


But why is this a big deal?
Because some time ago, you may recall seeing "Ads have been disabled." appearing on the forum. (No, we hadn't bought ad removal.) Proboards had actually disabled them on their end across all forums because they were having issues with ads. Some ads were attempting to install viruses, adware, malware or other junk on the people's computers. As well they would hijack the page and redirect it elsewhere, play intrusive music or actually speak.

Now, if it happened before and they're still recovering from it. Who's to say it won't happen again the next time they allow more advertisers again?
(Maybe it'll never happen. But they can't guarantee it won't happen again and forcing people not to use adblockers to protect themselves from this sort of an issue is not exactly fair to the user. )