This is...
The darkest hour.
Reddit is completely over taken and on its road to literally becoming a corporation.
This is monumental and we need all eyes on deck.
The Reddit sub-Reddit communities are literally about to be sold out, right underneath all of our feed.
These new policy changes are truly disturbing. Please. Take a look yourself then I'll narrow it down as another user did.
Https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement-may-25-2018
First things first. I highly recommend you delete all old comments on any and everyone of your Reddit accounts. To do so, here's a complete guide
https://www.reddit.com/r/Blackfellas/comments/8b5e3k/guide_how_to_delete_all_of_your_reddit_comments/
I have an old account I'm sure a few of you know of. I am in the process of mass-deleting my entire comments archive. I recommend you do too.
Now. Why do I sound so worried? Let's break it down as /u/911bodysnatchers322 did within /r/C_S_T so elegantly.
I mean who the hell reads TOS these days. Great catch, mate!
Here is the original thread that flagged my alarm bells
https://www.reddit.com/r/C_S_T/comments/8m7j0x/why_im_finally_leaving_reddit_in_about_2_wks_or/
And with a thread at only 40 upvotes?! All of Reddit needs to know this. Fucking today.
Basically, as he already mentions, this is an intellectual property rights logistics nightmare. Not only that but they dance around the law like a snake trying to avoid stinging honey bees.
Alright let's get to the meat and potatoes
Content Ownership Issue
It basically says:
We reserve all rights not expressly granted to you by these Terms. Except as permitted through the Services or as otherwise permitted by us in writing, your license does not include the right to: a) license, sell, transfer, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit the Services or Content; b) modify, prepare derivative works of, disassemble, decompile, or reverse engineer any part of the Services or Content; or c) access the Services or Content in order to build a similar or competitive website, product, or service, except as permitted under the Reddit API Terms of Use.
It gets really scary... Corporation level scary.
Look at this shit
You retain any ownership rights you have in Your Content, but you grant Reddit the following license to use that Content:
When Your Content is created with or submitted to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works from, distribute, perform, and display Your Content and any name, username, voice, or likeness provided in connection with Your Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed. This license includes the right for us to make Your Content available for syndication, broadcast, distribution, or publication by other companies, organizations, or individuals who partner with Reddit. You also agree that we may remove metadata associated with Your Content, and you irrevocably waive any claims and assertions of moral rights or attribution with respect to Your Content.
But wait. There's more.
[3rd party content] We can spy on you in any way we want
[3rd party content] We can send you malicious javascript attack ads that have the potential to get you banned
[Things you can't do] If we arbitrarily decide to ban TRUEPUNDIT or DAILYCALLER because we capriciously (wrongfully) deem it to be hate speech and/or inappropriate and/or fake news and/or malicious javascript attack ad site (you know, like 'us', hee!), ((or just straight up the truth which is that we don't like it politically)) and you post that OR post the archive version of it, we can ban you.
We can use your username for our own content (ie: we can gaslight and appropriate your username 'likeness'),
We can use AI + NLP to copy your style
We can give your content to whomever we want for whatever reason
We can capriciously cancel your account for any reason
We can sell accounts ("You will not license, sell, or transfer your Account without our prior written approval."). This one is tricky, you have to read between the lines. "without our prior written approval"--this means they can be PAID to approve people to sell accounts, if they can do ONE, they can do THOUSANDS, so people can AI botnet and karma whore and then sell accounts to Fort Meade.
We can create and allow bot accounts for our corporate overlords (see above)
We can even hijack video content as ours, even if its from google -- so we can launder IP this way (that's how I read it but I'm not a lawyer)
If you use reddit at work, your company is liable for any actions you take on reddit
"Your license does not include the right to: license, sell, transfer, assign, distribute, host, or otherwise commercially exploit the Services or Content;" -- I read this as "it doesn't give you a right, because that's what COPYRIGHTS are for"-- I wouldn't worry about this as much as I initially did
Looks like the corporate overlords are pulling out one last measure.
We can't let them win this time, and they won't!
I am prepared to do this. I've already deleted (well still am) old comments off my old account (so it can't be sold or used or used against me or get me banned or in trouble with a future job or whatever)
Do you guys see the scope of this problem?
Please. If you don't believe me just read the god damn TOS yourself
Https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement-may-25-2018
Guys this is seriously, seriously, a huge attack on individual freedom and property rights.
They won't win and they can't win and we won't let them win.
MODS & USERS of conspiracy! I have infrastructure setup for a migration if we need to do it. I've already setup a necessary off site forum ages ago for personal archiving and sharing. No financial motive, I don't even take donations.
I'm not going to post a link without mod approval but if this is the kind of reality Reddit corporate overlords want to try to pull over us, then I'm going to be gone. And I recommend we all be gone too because all that will be left is corporate shills and AI's and bots (all using your information and writing flow/technique by the way)
This is dirty dirty stuff.
Conspiracy. This needs to be news. This needs to be seen. Please. Spread awareness. Make your own threads on other sub reddits
This is truly BREAKING and deserves all the fucking caps locks (despite the rule)
Please.
Read.
The TOS
And see!
In the mean while let's plan our strategy because we have a few weeks at most to make a choice...
there doesn't seem to be anything here