Terms of Service

RandomActs · Post by **RandomActs** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:44 am

I've been searching today and I can't find what I'm looking for, so I'm now asking here. I've read in several places that have referenced the Keenspace TOS, but I cannot find an actual copy of the Terms of Service for the comics of Keenspace (not the forums).

Is there such an animal? I'm sure there must be, but like I said, I can't find it, or if I have, I didn't recognize it as such.

Can anyone help?

Oualawouzou · Post by **Oualawouzou** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:45 am

There ya go.

RandomActs · Post by **RandomActs** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 6:55 am

Okay, I've seen that, but I was thinking that Terms of Agreement was different from Terms of Service, with TOS being more of "Don't put this on your webpage, you can do this, etc." and TOA being "If you get sued we're not paying for it..."

If I want to put up a comic about gay midget porn, is there anything written that says I can't? If I want to start a comic set in 1930's Georgia where all the characters are in the KKK, is there anything written that says I can't? I'm not planing on making anything like either of these, obviously, but I'm just curious as to what my limits are.

Oualawouzou · Post by **Oualawouzou** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:18 am

AFAIK, the two are synonyms. But then again, I could be wrong.

Post by **Kisai** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:46 pm

Terms of Service (TOS), Acceptable Use Policies(AUP), and whatever else are all pretty much the same thing.

If you think it's going to cause a lawsuit, don't do it.

RPin · Post by **RPin** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 8:25 pm

RandomActs wrote:Okay, I've seen that, but I was thinking that Terms of Agreement was different from Terms of Service, with TOS being more of "Don't put this on your webpage, you can do this, etc." and TOA being "If you get sued we're not paying for it..."

If I want to put up a comic about gay midget porn, is there anything written that says I can't? If I want to start a comic set in 1930's Georgia where all the characters are in the KKK, is there anything written that says I can't? I'm not planing on making anything like either of these, obviously, but I'm just curious as to what my limits are.

Let's see if I can help you here, Ben. The KS TOA doesn't have the particular information you're looking for, but there's this particular excert which is elucidating enough:

"4. Indemnity CARTOONIST agrees to indemnify and hold KEENSPACE and all of it's partners (and their partners) harmless from any liability, damages, actions, costs, and expenses incurred on account of the content of the CARTOONIST'S material, including but not limited to defamation suits, and including but not limited to reasonable attorneys fees and costs of defense. KEENSPACE reserves the right to refuse to publish any material which, in KEENSPACE'S discretion, would increase KEENSPACE'S risk of liability."

What it basically says here is that you're responsible for whatever material you put on the account, although if KeenSpace feels it's going to bring trouble to them somehow (it's not clear if that's based solemnly on the grounds of the law, as it's not specified exactly what kind of "liability" risk you could increase upon Keen), they can refuse to keep providing you host and charge you for any expenses they will have in consequence of your acts. My guess is that, if you're going to cause trouble to Keen, be it lawsuits or even requests from advertisers (like what happened to Ghastly), they're free to boot you off.

One more thing: there are certain laws that regulate (or at least try to) the internet as a whole, and most of them make it clear that the proliferation of abusive messages such as hate propaganda and child pornography are crimes and as so by perpetrating those you are vulnerable to respond to them under the grounds of criminal law. Please not that this is not scope for a lawsuit but a prosecution which is a whole different thing.

Making fun of KKK or using it as historical reference is not a crime. But spreading its ideals might as well be.

Post by **Kisai** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 8:25 pm

To give you an idea...

There have been at least three recorded times when we were asked by a third party to remove something

Once, about a bert (CTW) parody, site author was notified and content removed.
Once about a how to make crystal meth, same site author as above, and entire site was pulled.
Once about jesus having sex, advertisements were pulled from that site.

Now the difference:
a) cease and desist notice was sent from CTW, content was removed
b) potential action from authorities, much like other forms of forbidden knowledge(drugs and bombs mostly), hoax or not, if someone attempts to do it, they may get killed.
c) someone took offence to the content, notified the advertisors, advertisors said pull the ads off or else. So the ads were removed from that site.

So I'm more likely to delete a site for b, than I am for a or c, however a and c would be immediate action anyhow.

Most of the time, any request to delete a site is ignored unless that user is wanting their own site deleted. I don't like censorship, and I once tried it with the signups and decided that spending one hour rejecting sites was not worth my time. Yes sprite rips are getting through, but if a C&D was to be sent from square/capcom/nintendo/sega/etc, I'd be taking down ALL the sprite-rip comics at once. Chances are no comic has become popular enough to come accross the copyright enforcement divisions of said companies, however said companies are usually very vigilant about ROM's, so I will remove a site without notice that is carrying any game ROM's or any other form of warez, be it abandonware or not.

Comics, the site is for your comic, not your personal backup site.