I Surrender All ...

...but be careful who you surrender to.

I know, I know. I'm being legalistic. I need to gracefully bend over so we can all live in peace. (Peace only occurs when one side surrenders. Bet they never taught you that in public school.)

Terms of Enslavement: Web Sites' Outrageous Service Agreements

So, in view of the recent attempted censorship of this blog by the Googilligans, I revisited the Blogger TOS. You should do the same.

[n.b. : I am assuming it was the Googilligans that slipped that little piece of hypertext into my post to redirect the page to a null. If they didn't do it, somebody else over-rode security, hacked my blog, and then restored it.



"Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to these Blogger Terms of Service, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Google may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Terms of Service and policies at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions. If you do not accept and abide by this Agreement, you may not use the Blogger service."

When you do, you will realize that the Google TOS makes the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle look as solid as a rock. The Cheshire Cat could take lessons.

Within the TOS, you read that Google reserves the right to investigate your use of the Service, does not monitor the content of Blogger.com and Blogspot.com [giggle], and reserves the right to remove or refuse to distribute any content. You agree that you will not use any process to monitor or copy any content from the Service. [Ooops. Is that what I am doing by pointing these things out? Technically, can a link to a blog via an RSS feed be construed as monitoring? Lots of hanging rope in this bag, Bodangles.]

Lessee, now. "Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted..." -- what does everything preceding that statement mean? No control? Except investigation, removal, a "... worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish, and distribute such Content ..."

And in the Content Policy : "Users may not publish material that promotes hate toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity." "Users may not publish direct threats of violence against any person or group of people."

[Have you ever wondered why the terms "hate" and "violence" are never defined in that type of document? Do definitions limit subjectivity? Ha!!]

Now don't get me wrong. You voluntarily agree to these things when you open a Google account. Nobody forces you to agree. You did agree, didn't you?