Red Flag: MYCROFT AI, INC. TERMS OF USE

Bigscreen and Mycroft Voice Apps
1

from Terms of Use - Mycroft

Unauthorized Activities.

When using this Site and/or the Services, you agree not to:

  • Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.
  • Use racially, ethnically, or otherwise offensive language.
  • Discuss or incite illegal activity.
    > * Solicit/post sexually explicit images (actual or simulated).
  • Post anything that exploits children or minors or that depicts cruelty to animals.
    > * Post any copyrighted or trademarked materials without the express permission from the owner.
  • Disseminate any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, ‘junk mail’, ‘spam’, ‘chain letters’, ‘pyramid schemes’, or any other form of such solicitation.
  • Use any robot, spider, scraper or other automated means to access the Site.
  • Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure.
  • Alter the opinions or comments posted by others on this Site.
    > * Post anything clearly false or misleading.
    > * Post anything contrary to our public image, goodwill or reputation, provided that the foregoing will not apply to you if applicable law prohibits such limitations and restrictions.

This corporate violates basic human rights

  • NSFW general forbidden
  • Filesharing forbidden
  • Non-mainstream opinions forbidden. Who decides what is “fakenews”? Corporate media like CNN?
2

Please redirect this to Myroft AI forum. This is a project using Mycroft AI technology. Anyone can also download the full mycroft backend server code and set up their own backend with own terms.

3 Likes
3

Hi there, I’m glad people actually read terms and privacy policies, and we’re always happy to discuss them.

I wasn’t with the company when these terms were written so can’t say exactly why each point is there, but as the person who would most likely have to respond to any of them, here are my personal thoughts.

As a general point across all of these, Mycroft is open source. You can download our code, modify it, share it, or just use it yourself to do whatever you like. Skills themselves do not have to be added to the Mycroft Marketplace for you to use them. You can install from any github repo, or just drop code into the Skills directory on your device and you’re good to go.

As for the specific items you raise:

  1. We are a general usage voice assistant and have many users under the age of 18. We don’t currently (and don’t want to) collect dates of birth for all users or validate exactly who a user is and whether they could view adult content or not. I don’t think our users want their kids saying - “Hey Mycroft, install boobies” and actually getting NSFW content showing on a screen in their kitchen. So no, we won’t accept NSFW content into the Mycroft Skills Marketplace at this time.
  2. If you post copyrighted material on our community platforms or as a Skill on the Marketplace, we have two options - remove it or get sued to all hell and close down. This is not about “filesharing”. A Skill that interacts with a torrent client would be great and completely acceptable. A “Free Netflix” Skill would not.
  3. For this, we decide what is clearly false or misleading. We have a broad diversity of people in our community with very different view points. I don’t care if people like or hate CNN. I would have a problem if they post clearly fabricated, derogatory and libellous statements about people. At the end of the day, it’s up to us to decide where that line is and there’s no way to give you a complete black and white list of what that would be. If people disagreed with our moderation then I’m sure we’d hear about it and I’m sure they’d walk away to other projects.
  4. Somewhat an extension of 3. Though in terms of our reputation, I’d say that this is not about silencing negative comments about Mycroft. We welcome criticism and you can find plenty of that about the delays for the Mark II.

Providing a safer community and service for everyone, I believe upholds human rights, far more than the restrictions can be claimed to violate them.

Article 19 is a classic

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Some interpret this as “I can say anything, anywhere, to anyone”. However derogatory and hateful comments actively prevent other people from exercising that same right.

Or the right of equal access to information and education - does this mean we have to allow NSFW content? However this would come at the expense of a large proportion of the population (those under 18) being allowed to access any part of Mycroft.

Always happy to discuss these, but I can’t see us changing the highlighted terms. If that means you are unwilling to use our services then that is your choice, but again, as it’s open source using our code does not require you to accept these terms.

2 Likes