Farewell Livejournal....
I went to post this morning, and got hit with the new ToS from Livejournal's Russian Overlords.
I find that I cannot in clear conscience agree to them. For one, a quick read of the translated terms tells me that Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and privacy as (still) practiced in the USA. For those of us who occasionally have Opinions of the political (or gender/sex-related) nature, those protections were what made such posts possible. Under Putin's Russia's laws, those posts would risk more than trolls and flamewars. And there is no guarantee that 'locking' a post would protect it.
Also worrying is the notice that the available (and kinda shitty) translation of the User Agreement" is not a legally binding document." The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml - and is entirely in Russian. It might be exactly the same context as the translation - and it might not. We're not working on a standard of mutual trust to begin with...
This is the point at which I generally say "get in the damn car and drive in the direction of Away Very Fast."
Nearly fifteen years of my life's on LJ, and it hurts, but this is one of those "it's not me, it's you" situations.
So if you're reading this at LJ, come join me on Dreamwidth, or at my main blog, or hell, even on Fb, for now. Because the suricattus account is probably going to go away RSN.
I find that I cannot in clear conscience agree to them. For one, a quick read of the translated terms tells me that Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and privacy as (still) practiced in the USA. For those of us who occasionally have Opinions of the political (or gender/sex-related) nature, those protections were what made such posts possible. Under Putin's Russia's laws, those posts would risk more than trolls and flamewars. And there is no guarantee that 'locking' a post would protect it.
Also worrying is the notice that the available (and kinda shitty) translation of the User Agreement" is not a legally binding document." The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml - and is entirely in Russian. It might be exactly the same context as the translation - and it might not. We're not working on a standard of mutual trust to begin with...
This is the point at which I generally say "get in the damn car and drive in the direction of Away Very Fast."
Nearly fifteen years of my life's on LJ, and it hurts, but this is one of those "it's not me, it's you" situations.
So if you're reading this at LJ, come join me on Dreamwidth, or at my main blog, or hell, even on Fb, for now. Because the suricattus account is probably going to go away RSN.