News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by david-gpu on Saturday August 29, 2026 @05:22AM (#49488296)
How long until books come with TOS, then?
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by steve1977 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @08:06AM (#49489205)
Many of them do already and have for decades
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by david-gpu on Saturday August 29, 2026 @10:12AM (#49490059)
Can you please provide a specific example?
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by delecti on Saturday August 29, 2026 @10:31AM (#49490217)
Pick up nearly any published book. Turn to the ~3rd page. There will be either a whole page, or sometimes the second half of a page, dedicated to a copyright notice. Very nearly every published book I've ever seen has that identical page. This isn't a recent thing. I grabbed my copy of Diaspora by Greg Egan and opposite the table of contents is a page that starts like this:

Copyright (C) 1998, 2015 by Greg Egan

First Night Shade Books edition 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, blah blah (it felt very ironic to transcribe that bit in particular to make this point)

Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by steve1977 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @11:06AM (#49490528)
This is what I meant.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by david-gpu on Saturday August 29, 2026 @12:23PM (#49491168)
Standard copyright boilerplate. Not terms of service distinct from copyright, which is the subject of this thread.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by delecti on Saturday August 29, 2026 @12:26PM (#49491198)
If you read the whole copyright page of a book and come away with the conclusion that it's anything but terms of use for the book, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by david-gpu on Saturday August 29, 2026 @01:24PM (#49491604)
The thread is about terms of use separate from copyright law. It is the whole premise.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by cornholio on Sunday August 30, 2026 @02:50PM (#49501628)
You do not have a contract with the publishers of the book. They are visibly asserting their copyright to deter any defense of ignorance or implied grant of rights to an infringer; but that's not a contract, you did not agree to it before purchasing, there are no contractual terms (scope, duration, faults and compensation, resolution etc.) and nothing in it exceeds the limits the copyright law already sets.

For example, never will you see printed in a book something like "this book is for the exclusive use of the original owner and you cannot lend, resale or otherwise make available to other people" - if such a thing was possible, like most software EULAs do, publishers would be all over it.

Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by ozlikethewizard on Saturday August 29, 2026 @05:35AM (#49488358)
Damn now im looking forward to the day when books end up like physical game disks, where somehow you're not buying the book just a license to it, what a boring dystopia this is lol
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by JustAnUserNameF on Saturday August 29, 2026 @06:57AM (#49488836)
As usual, Stallman already predicted this: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by phoghed on Saturday August 29, 2026 @07:33AM (#49489033)
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by jtbayly on Saturday August 29, 2026 @07:30AM (#49489023)
Have you ever heard of Amazon? Kindle?
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by 3eb7988a1663 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @12:12PM (#49491077)
Common for college textbooks to have some digital-only component accessed with a one-time key inside the cover. Sometimes time-limited to a single semester.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by paradox460 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @12:25PM (#49491187)
They kind of do. There's usually a big scary notice on the imprint page scolding you for even thinking about piracy
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by david-gpu on Saturday August 29, 2026 @01:25PM (#49491608)
We are talking of TOS independent of copyright law.
Re:Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX by BobbyTables2 on Sunday August 30, 2026 @10:37AM (#49499062)
I suspect first-sale doctrine doesn’t allow such.

However, if content is “licensed” instead of “sold” …