Remove indemnification for frivolous lawsuits #21
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
A user should not be liable to Github simply because someone files a lawsuit against Github that in some way relates to the user's conduct. For example, let's say I create an app called, "Empowering Women," which a totally fictitious man we'll call "Donald Trump" finds offensive. Mr. Trump then sues Github for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit is frivolous and will be rapidly dismissed, but these terms before my modification would have required *me* to pay Github's attorney's fees. The modification I've made allows for indemnification only if Github is sued because of the user's violation of the terms of service, not for any lawsuit, no matter how frivolous, and no matter how tangentially related, to the user's conduct on Github. If Github would like more protection than that, it should purchase an insurance policy, not foist liability on its users.
|
I agree with this. GitHub should protect users speech without passing on a bill to the user. Unless GitHub is sued because a user wrote malware or something, the user should be safe. |
nbali
approved these changes
Jul 17, 2017
Contributor
|
Thanks for the suggestions. However, while we are very protective of our users' free speech, we recognize that we can't account for every possible situation in our Terms of Service. They'd end up overbroad and unwieldy. Our goal is to set up good default guidelines that are fair to our users and easy to read. |
Author
|
But this guideline is obviously not fair to your users, nor would it take extended verbiage to make it more fair. Please see the 27 upvotes this comment has received and reconsider. |
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
5 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
A user should not be liable to Github simply because someone files a lawsuit against Github that in some way relates to the user's conduct. For example, let's say I create an app called, "Empowering Women," which a totally fictitious man we'll call "Donald Trump" finds offensive. Mr. Trump then sues Github for negligent infliction of emotional distress. The suit is frivolous and will be rapidly dismissed, but these terms before my modification would have required me to pay Github's attorney's fees.
The modification I've made allows for indemnification only if Github is sued because of the user's violation of the terms of service, not for any lawsuit, no matter how frivolous, and no matter how tangentially related, to the user's conduct on Github. If Github would like more protection than that, it should purchase an insurance policy, not foist liability on its users.
Jonathan Corbett
jon@professional-troublemaker.com