The dry language of Terms of Service sometimes gets pretty saucy. Yesterday, this excerpt from Vultr’s rocketed around the interwebs:
information, text, opinions, messages, comments, audio visual works, motion pictures, photographs, animation, videos, graphics, sounds, music, software, Apps, and any other content or material that You or your end users submit, upload, post, host, store, or otherwise make available (“Make Available”) on or through the Services (collectively, “Your Content,” “Content” or “User Content”).
You hereby grant to Vultr a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license (including the right to sublicense through multiple tiers) to use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit and distribute each of your User Content, or any portion thereof, in any form, medium or distribution method now known or hereafter existing, known or developed, and otherwise use and commercialize the User Content in any way that Vultr deems appropriate, without any further consent, notice and/or compensation to you or to any third parties, for purposes of providing the Services to you.
Whoa! Sounds like Vultr can go into your VM and slurp up every bit and byte and do whatever they want with it.
Reaction on LowEndTalk was swift:
Lets pray this backfires horrendously for them and other big-tech doesn’t try to pull the same stunt. People shouldn’t accept or allow this to become the norm. (link)
But here’s the thing…
First, this isn’t “new”. As @ehhthing pointed out, this has been in Vultr’s terms since 2021. So people saying Vultr “is now claiming full perpetual commercial rights over all hosted content” are implying that the provider is engaging in a new campaign.
And Vultr’s own @DaveA posted a reply to the thread:
There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the legal language and our trust and safety’s team intention. We will clean up the legal language ASAP to avoid the conspiracy theories from propagating further. The only interest we have in your data is making sure it’s safe, secure, and reliably accessible for you at all times.
Sounds to me like a tempest in a teapot. On the one hand, you have the knee-jerk assumption that Vultr has just started its Orwellian program of harvesting user data for its own nefarious ends. On the other hand, you have one of its execs’ admitting that the language isn’t what was intended and they’re going to modify it.
What do you think?
Personally, I’m not moving my VMs.
Update: Vultr has posted an official response.
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I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.
I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308
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