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Legalese/Privacy-Policy

 
Updates -- Take-down -- Intellectual Property -- Pretty Broad License to You
Pretty Broad License Back to Me, Too -- Privacy Policy -- Children -- Version List 

Updates


I update this Legalese/Privacy-Policy page from time to time. I sometimes upload a copy of the updated page to a third-party archiving service.

"Sometimes" means that what you see on this page is not the Legalese, nor the Privacy Policy, which sets out our current (or past) on-line relationship.
  • What you see on this page is only a collection of my musings about what a good Legalese/Privacy-Policy should be. Please contact me with your comments!
  • What sets out our actual on-line relationship, currently, is the most recently archived version of this page. 
  • What sets out our actual on-line relationship, in the past, is the last archived version of this page which preceded the events in question.
  • Here is a list of current and previous versions of this Legalese/Privacy-Policy webpage, including the effective dates of each version and a link to its archive.

Take-down

 

I have a reasonable take-down policy:

 

  • If you think that my website contains (or links to) material that you have the copyright on, then please contact me.

  • If you find anything on my website (or linked-to from it) that looks illegal to you (obscene, classified military secret, trademark infringement, etc.), then please contact me.

  • If you find anything that looks just plain stupid and/or wrong, then please contact me.

 

I'm in this to inform and entertain. I'm not in this to get folks all riled up when there's no cause for riling.

 

In an astonishingly large percentage of situations, I'll take down a webpage (or modify it to your satisfaction) simply:

 

  • because you ask me to; and not

  • because you have the legal power to force me to -- after we've both spent a gazillion dollars on lawyers and legal expenses.

 

Let me say it again:

 

  • I'm in this to inform and entertain.

  • I'm not in this to get folks all riled up when there's no cause for riling.

 

Intellectual Property

Everything on this website is Copyright © Tom Streeter. It is also a trademark™ of Tom Streeter. These and all other Intellectual Property ("IP") rights, including publicity and privacy, are reserved.

Pretty Broad License To You

 

That having been said:

 

  • Feel free to link to, quote, copy, modify, create a derivative work, archive, or frame any page on this website. An acknowledgment and a link-back are appreciated, but not necessary.

  • If I decide that you're not playing nice, I reserve the right to revoke this permission by the simple expedient(s) of:

    • updating this webpage of legalese; and/or

    • sending you an email (or snail-mail, if I have to).

  • Note that phrasing: "and/or".

    • If you make it easy for me to send you an email/snail-mail, then I am more likely to do so, and to thereby bring the problem to your actual attention. "Ask, and you might well receive; don't ask, and your odds go way down."

    • That "and/or" phrasing means that revocation is complete once I have updated this webpage of legalese. So:

      • Don't worry about pre-revocation use; just don't do any post-revocation use.

      • If you're thinking about starting some hard-to-back-out-of project that uses material from this webpage, and that you could find yourself suddenly not permitted to use any more, then double-check back to this webpage.

      • Yes, I'm prepared to cut special deals. Contact me.

  • Not that I undertake, warrant, or represent anything, of course.

    • This website is a perpetual work in progress. A link to (or frame of) a page on this website -- one that worked yesterday -- might well not work today.

    • A lot of the material on this website is tongue in cheek.

      • Sometimes it is marked as such.

      • Sometimes it is marked as not being such.

      • Sometimes you're left to think it through for yourself.

      • This legalese/privacy-policy page is not tongue in cheek.

      Feel free to link to this tongue-in-cheek-disclaimer when folks start to cite to, or even quote, material on this website (whether to you or to third parties).

    • As noted above, I have no problem with you using any of the material on this website in a fashion which (but for this legalese/privacy-policy page) would constitute an infringement of my IP rights. However, you do so at your own risk that what you do might give rise to some claim of infringement of the IP of some third party (or parties).

      • Sure, I do my best to avoid infringement of third-party IP. I even do a pretty prompt take-down of material in response to some pretty bogus third-party claims of infringement.

      • Rest assured, however, that anyone who is angry enough to not be satisfied with me doing a pretty prompt take-down from this website is quite likely to also be angry enough to not be satisfied with you doing a pretty prompt take-down -- in any medium -- of anything which is remotely similar. You're going to have to cut your own deal with this angry person. No, I'm not going to help you fund that deal.

Pretty Broad License Back To Me, Too

 

This Pretty Broad License is a two-way street. It's just like it says in my Privacy Policy:

 

  • Whatever you provide to me is fair game for me to do anything that I want to with it, to the maximum extent allowed by law.

  • Privacy, publicity, copyright -- any kind of Intellectual Property.

  • Yes, I try to maintain the reputation of someone who knows how to keep his mouth (and keyboard) shut when appropriate. Yes, I try to maintain the reputation as someone who is not easily hacked.

  • Still, if you provided it to me, then don't be complaining that I did something with it (or allowed some hacker to do something with it) which you didn't like. Sometimes other things are more important than reputation.

 

Yes, I'm prepared to cut special deals. Contact me.

 

Privacy Policy

 

You have no privacy (or other IP) rights in your interactions with this website, including when you send me an email.

 

  • That said, I zealously desire to maintain my reputation of someone who knows when it is appropriate to keep his mouth (and keyboard) shut. 

    • This desire might well actually provide you with much better privacy than what is allegedly provided to you by the weasel-worded legalese which you see so much on the Web these days.

    • This desire might even carry through to litigation, as follows:

      • The Bad Guys hire some pretty nasty lawyers. 

      • Lawyers for The Bad Guys issue a subpoena to me, demanding that I give them a copy of your correspondence with me.

      • Your lawyers can very probably quash the subpoena, but they must file the motion to quash quickly.

      • Watch how closely I cooperate with your lawyers, thereby keeping my reputation intact. 

      • Cooperation will be even closer when those lawyers get hired -- and paid for -- by you and not by me.

    • The Bad Guys also hire some pretty nasty hackers. I therefore am also pretty zealous in my desire to maintain my reputation as someone who is not easily hacked.

    • This is all reputation, though, and not rights. Don't you be hauling me into court claiming that I've invaded your privacy or other IP rights (or allowed others to do so). Sometimes other things are more important than reputation.

  • If you want to contact me privately, then please make a video call to me. Your using that method indicates that you take your privacy quite seriously.
    • I must therefore be quite zealous about keeping my mouth (and keyboard) even more tightly shut than usual in order to keep my reputation intact. 
    • If you don't take that approach, though, then I remain only ordinarily zealous.
      • Your inaction speaks louder than any facile email request of yours that I keep my mouth (and keyboard) more tightly shut than usual.
      • Your privacy isn't worth even the effort it takes to open a Zoom account?
    • Again, this is all reputation, and not rights. Don't you be hauling me into court claiming that I've invaded your privacy or other IP rights (or allowed others to do so). Sometimes other things are more important than reputation.
  • Yes, I'm prepared to cut special deals. Contact me.
  • I don't track visitors to my website.
    • That said, my website host, aplus.net, does perform "standard analytics" to keep track of what my website's visitors do (and probably what I do, for that matter). Aplus.net is a subsidiary of Deluxe Small Business Sales, and uses Deluxe's privacy policy to decide what to do with the resulting information.
    • I've been happy with the services of Aplus/Deluxe for quite some time. If you discover that Aplus/Deluxe is not treating you right, I'd appreciate it if you'd contact me. I probably won't help you in your lawsuit against Aplus/Deluxe, but I'll at least consider getting a new website host if your complaint seems plausible to me.

Children

  • This website is directed at adults.
    • Please do not contact me if you are under 18 years old. 
    • Instead, ask your parents to bring you to Non-Screaming Politics.

Version List

I used the Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org, in the past as my third-party archiving service for archiving successive versions of this webpage. My current third-party archiving service is perma.cc, a service which is "developed and maintained by the Harvard Law School Library in conjunction with university law libraries across the country and other organizations in the 'forever' business."
  • It appears to be fairly permanent. 
  • It is happy to archive any webpage, at the request of anyone. The first ten archives, per requester per month, are free. 
  • Feel free to take advantage of these facts. If you're worried that I might tamper with my list of archived Legalese/Privacy-Policy webpages, ask perma.cc yourself to make an archive of the webpage -- including this version list.
    • I can't run the risk of publishing a tampered-with list when someone, from anywhere on the planet, might have asked perma.cc to archive the untampered-with list.
    • I may ask perma.cc to not archive other pages of this website, but never this webpage. Archive-denial of the list would look just as bad as tampering with the list!
Here is a list of current and previous archived versions of the Legalese/Privacy-Policy page for this website, including the effective dates of each version and a link to its archive.