Contesting Mojang&#39;s forced migration Mojang is forcing their users to migrate their account with their Microsoft account. Personally, I don't agree with this migration and especially the way they are forcing it on their users: if you don't migrate, you will lose access to the game. I have my reasons for not wanting to cooperate. For example, some people think it will even make the game less secure. In any case, I demand to either have access to the game or to get a refund. The latter is not going to happen as long as it's up to Mojang, since my refund request does not meet their refund requirements. Is there anything I can do about this? Can I force them to issue a refund?
You agreed to terms of use when you started using Mojang, posted at https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/terms and including: We may change these Account Terms from time to time, if we have reason to. For example, there might be changes to our games, our practices, or our legal obligations. We'll inform you of the change before it takes effect, either by posting a notice on our Website or some other reasonable way. If you use the Website or your account after the change, that means you agree to the changes. If you do not agree to the changes, stop using the Website. The changes will apply to your use of the Website when you next use it. That means Microsoft and Mojang can make a decisions like moving/merging your account without asking your permission. Website and product Terms of Service agreements are legally binding contracts, and you agreed to them when you started using their services. And refunds are part of the terms: RETURNS, REFUNDS AND CANCELLATION You or we may cancel your Mojang Account at any time or access to Minecraft.net, Mojang.com or any Mojang game titles using a Microsoft Account. When your account terminates or access is terminated, your rights under these Account Terms terminate. They can cancel your account at any time and not give you a refund. Can I force them to issue a refund? You can attempt to make your case in court, but a) you agreed to the contract, and 2) Microsoft has more money for lawyers than you do.
I am not a lawyer; I am especially not your lawyer; this is not legal advice; if you want legal advice, hire a lawyer. Idk. But probably not. The YouTube terms of service seem to prohibit this pretty clearly: You agree not to distribute in any medium any part of the Service or the Content without YouTube's prior written authorization, unless YouTube makes available the means for such distribution through functionality offered by the Service (such as the Embeddable Player)... You agree not to access Content through any technology or means other than the video playback pages of the Service itself, the Embeddable Player, or other explicitly authorized means YouTube may designate. Now, were YouTube itself licensing the videos in question under the CC license, they might be prohibited from enforcing that term: You may not offer or impose any additional or different terms or conditions on, or apply any Effective Technological Measures to, the Licensed Material if doing so restricts exercise of the Licensed Rights by any recipient of the Licensed Material. though I'm not sure if the language in question would apply. However, it seems likely that in most cases, YouTube is using the material in question under the license to which users agreed when they created their accounts, and therefore is not bound by the term in question. All that said, it's entirely possible that the clause in the YouTube ToS prohibiting downloading does not apply for whatever reason (unconscionable in a contract of adhesion, browsewrap agreement doesn't form a contract to begin with, it's superseded by either some other agreement (part of the API EULA, etc), it's contrary to some law in your jurisdiction, etc). Just to be very clear, though, there is no COPYRIGHT CONCERN preventing uses like the one you mentioned.
Sure, you can. But if you, from the US, contract with and pay someone outside the US and then use the results of that effort - the reverse-engineered code, either directly in violation of copyright or to find workarounds - within the US, you may not be culpable in a criminal sense (depending on different jurisdictions and trade/IP agreements), but you certainly would be liable in a civil sense. If the US based software developer (I assume a US-based software company, as you said "outside the US") tracks you down, they can open a civil action against you for any damages they want to claim, including theft of IP, loss of profits, EULA violations, and on and on, because you posses and are using reverse engineered code. How much money do you have to lose?
This is not (necessarily) copyright violation It's possible that Quora's usage falls within Fair Use. At the very least, the argument could be made. If it does, then there is nothing that Stack Exchange or the OP can do. Stack Exchange can choose not to protect their copyright Unlike trademarks, which lapse if not protected, copyright endures. Therefore Stack Exchange can pick and choose the copyright fights they want to get involved in and those they don't. If you have brought it to the attention of the copyright owner (or, in this case, licensee) and the copyright owner chooses not to act then you have done all you can and significantly more than you have to do. The OP has copyright I note that one of the examples is your question. As the copyright holder, you are free to issue a DCMA takedown notice on Quora if you feel your copyright has been violated.
Can you locate your license (generally not a trivial task)? It may appear under Help-About and a click to view EULA. The EULA specifically addresses redistribution of parts of the software and number of installations you can make with a single license. They do not say what uses you make make of the software, except that &quot;You may not rent, lease, lend or provide commercial hosting services with the Software&quot;. There is no express prohibition against commercial or non-commercial political use of the product: anything not prohibited is allowed. The fact that they say nothing about the content that you create with Word means, they have declined to have a say in the matter. (I am not sure about the wording of the &quot;Educational&quot; versions of Office: those are somewhat negotiated between the institution and MS).
(2019 update See comments for my exchange with @benrg updating this 2015 answer. In particular, they do a fair job of representing a much less &quot;paranoid&quot; take on MS's take on users' privacy than my highly skeptical one. Also, the links in the answer below are to the latest versions of the respective documents. Archive.org has 2015 versions at 2015 EULA and 2105 privacy statement.) IANAL. This answer is just a broad picture. It's a simple explanation of Microsoft's own words, as they were at the time of originally writing this (just after the final release of Windows 10). TL;DR: Microsoft does not recognize users' privacy rights. The Microsoft Privacy document does not say anything positive about privacy in this document that isn't contradicted by their own words elsewhere in the same document. Microsoft does explicitly reserve rights to share users' private data with just about anyone and everyone. Microsoft explicitly disallows legal recourse regarding privacy. The Windows 10 EULA comprehensively denies legal recourse related to privacy (and indeed anything other than IP disputes). It's Microsoft's offerings as a whole, not (just) Windows 10 The key document to focus on is Microsoft's Privacy policy document. This policy applies to many Microsoft products and services, including, but definitely not limited to, Windows 10. Microsoft reserve the right to share your private data Quoting the &quot;Privacy&quot; document, Microsoft reserves the right to share users' private data: among Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries with vendors or agents working on our behalf as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets [to] comply with applicable law [to] respond to valid legal process [to] protect our customers, for example to prevent spam [to] operate and maintain the security of our services [to] protect the rights or property of Microsoft as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any service you have requested or authorized Do users have any privacy rights? One can presumably fight for one's (perceived) rights even if Microsoft attempts to deny them. However, from the English Windows 10 EULA: you and we agree to try for 60 days to resolve [a dispute] informally. If we can’t, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration ... and not to sue in court Additionally, collective action or any other form of representative action is explicitly disallowed. Windows 10 data collection defaults to &quot;Full&quot; mode You've said that what data is collected is off topic. But I think it's worth recognizing that, with Windows 10, Microsoft have made the most popular install option collect and send to their cloud all data collected from your local device (&quot;Full&quot; collection) and have effectively made it a breach of contract to reduce it below a minimal level (&quot;Basic&quot; collection) that they get to determine and change as they see fit. And they can pretty much enforce the latter; if you hack a system to stop &quot;Basic&quot; data being sent to MS, they explicitly disable updates for that system.
Twitter don’t have to host your account UMG’s and Sony’s business is probably more important to Twitter than yours is. It seems Twitter have made a commercial decision to close your account down. They can do this: We may suspend or terminate your account or cease providing you with all or part of the Services at any time for any or no reason, … What’s happening is not fair use Fair use is a lot narrower than you think it is. UMG and Sony (and every other music label) get paid when people use their music on a commercial platform like Twitter. Which means, you enabling people to avoid this is directly reducing their market so this is not fair use. Giving credit does not help. Now, if your program blocked the use of copyrighted songs that might be ok. Your program looks exactly like a piracy tool I’m sure you have the best intentions but your tool readily enables copyright violations by others. That’s moving out of the realms of civil breach and into possible criminal sanctions. I wouldn’t push this if I were you. Your understanding of copyright is flawed This video is a good primer on copyright.
You agreed to this On Stackexchange, there are Terms of Service. These tell you to follow the Code of conduct and explicitly allow SO to throw you out if they don't want you to write here. Stack Overflow reserves the right to refuse, suspend or terminate your access to the public Network if it determines, in its sole discretion, that you have in any way violated these Public Network Terms or are otherwise ineligible to access or use the Network or Services. If your actions are determined by us to violate these Public Network Terms, Stack Overflow may, in its sole discretion, try to remediate that violation by working with you individually, but is under no obligation to do so, and if any such remediation efforts are unsuccessful (in Stack Overflow’s sole discretion), then Stack Overflow may revoke your rights to the Network. You agreed to follow the rules, and the code of conduct spells out that if you don't, then you face action.