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Ask HN: Are There GPL-Like Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, etc for Webapps?

2 points by i_phish_cats ↗ HN
If I wanted to release a software package, I can use the MIT/BSD/GPL/some FLOSS license with a strong warranty disclaimer in it to cover my butt from legal problems. Is there a similar solution for web applications? It seems that as soon as I accept any data from the user I have to worry about data security regulations, privacy laws like CA's Consumer Privacy Act or GPDR in europe, child protection laws like COPPA, DMCA if I want user submitted content, etc. etc.

I'm not going to have a lawyer draft legal documents for each side project I want to put up. Googling shows a bunch of options, I can't tell which templates are any good for protecting me against liability. My greatest fear is some legal troll taking everything I own because of some side project. Any thoughts/advice?

1 comment

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ArneBab
I don’t have an answer, except for "accept as little data as possible, avoid having centralized control". Basically decentralize all the things, especially control. It is unlikely that empty words will help you if taking down your site could stop something illegal from happening.

Due to this I disabled comments on all my websites, because I no longer had the time to moderate them. My GNU social instance only shows others the content I explicitly like or re-share — that’s active moderation with a white-list.

If unsure, don’t run the service. Just provide the tools others could use to run it and allow the others to accept money to fund their due dilligence.

I’m working on Freenet, and the kind of change I would reject off-hand is one which would give me more power. If some sort of control is needed, find a way to implement it without getting power yourself.

Besides: From your title I expected to see a question about copyleft — there the answer is: Use the AGPL which requires people who use your code to provide the code to all their users.