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Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by hombre_fatal on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @08:24AM (#20514450)
I don't really understand the upside for them to include such toothless yet threatening clauses. It makes them seem a bit juvenile.

Like when we had to come up with laws for our make-believe countries for a class project in middle school and we tried to cover our bases with rules like "if you're a bad person doing all bad stuff, you're not allowed to!"

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by nerdponx on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @09:03AM (#20514788)
It's pretty clear that those terms are all defined in the context of whatever they might mean under Czech law, which I am not familiar with.

Also, those quotes are taken out of context for dramatic effect:

You will not engage in using this Software that will interfere with or damage the operation of the services of any third parties by overburdening/disabling network resources through automated queries, excessive usage or similar conduct.

You will not use this Software to engage in any activity that will violate the rights of third parties, including, without limitation, through the use, public display, public performance, reproduction, distribution, or modification of communications or materials that infringe copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, privacy rights, other proprietary rights, or rights against defamation of third parties.

GP is really trying hard to smear this author for some reason, but you read the actual license you'll see that their criticism is based on fiction.

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by MarkSweep on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @12:21PM (#20516765)
Whoops, that was pretty silly of me to miss the Czech.

However I stand by my criticism that it is not possible to know if you are violating the license or not. I don’t want to have to learn and follow Czech law to use a git client. Why does this agreement cover how I use third party services and who defines what qualifies as interfering? How far does my obligation to not allow others to reverse engineer the application go? What rights might third parties have under Czech law that I have to worry about while using the software?

Compare Microsoft Windows’s license:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Useterms/Retail/Windows/10/U...

It also says you can’t reverse engineer, but it does not obligate you to stop others. It’s section about online service is a little bit more explicit about what is not allowed. There are no other requirements to follow every law of a particular jurisdiction while using the software.

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by nerdponx on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @01:07PM (#20517232)
However I stand by my criticism that it is not possible to know if you are violating the license or not. I don’t want to have to learn and follow Czech law to use a git client.

Surely this applies to anyone using a piece of US-made software living outside the US. And without a governing law clause, isn't it always ambiguous?

Why does this agreement cover how I use third party services and who defines what qualifies as interfering?

Who am I to judge. That's what they want.

How far does my obligation to not allow others to reverse engineer the application go? What rights might third parties have under Czech law that I have to worry about while using the software?

Now that's a good question and the license should be clearer on that.

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by MarkSweep on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @04:48PM (#20519508)
> Surely this applies to anyone using a piece of US-made software living outside the US. And without a governing law clause, isn't it always ambiguous?

I don't think most software licenses say you can't violate some country's laws while using it. It is already illegal to do the illegal thing.

> Who am I to judge. That's what they want.

I'm not judging either. I am not able to confidently follow these terms, so I won't use the software. No hard feelings.

I'm guessing that the license author's intention was to avoid legal liability for people doing illegal things with their software. Usually this is addressed with some language in the license about limitation of liability or or indemnification. For example, see section 3.8 of Atlassian's software agreement:

https://www.atlassian.com/legal/software-license-agreement

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by Terretta on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @04:34PM (#20519365)
> You will not use this Software to engage in any activity that will violate the rights of third parties, including, without limitation, through the use, public display, public performance, reproduction, distribution, or modification of communications or materials that infringe copyrights... other proprietary rights...

OK, not allowed to use it for reverse engineering or other research the DMCA attempts to block?

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by vintagedave on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @09:30AM (#20515036)
> It makes them seem a bit juvenile.

It's also apparently one individual, and non-US. I've seen many clauses like that in European, especially eastern European, software. Sometimes, even in countries like Australia. It's inspecific, but seems pretty clear they're trying to say, "don't use our software for something you shouldn't." They're within their rights to desire that.

Would you perhaps want to edit your comment to remove the rather patronising comments about "like... laws for our make-believe countries", "middle school", etc?

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by t1amat on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @10:55AM (#20515876)
It did not seem that they were used by the poster to patronize, they were there to describe a task (creating laws for make-believe countries) that they performed at one stage of their life (middle school).
Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by vintagedave on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @11:21AM (#20516121)
Is not a direct comparison between the author and middle school attitudes and conduct and being juvenile extremely patronising? (Almost by definition, given the description 'juvenile', ie youthful or child-like.)

There's conduct and commentary that follows the Hacker News ethos, and there's conduct and commentary that does not. This does not. It is a pity to read it.

Re:Fork: A fast and friendly Git client for Mac and Windows by t1amat on Wednesday July 24, 2019 @02:41PM (#20518261)
Not being the author I can not definitively express their intent.

You seem to desire to be an enforcer of rules in this thread, which is admirable, but ultimately not your authority or responsibility to do. I would respectfully suggest you leave moderation to those with the authority to do so.