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You Just Lost Your Rights On Shopify

PTP

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There was a notice on my shopify store today saying that the terms of using shopify have been updated as of 4/3/17.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed there is now a "Shopify Rights" section.

The first right of shopify is the following gem:
  1. We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service for any reason, without notice at any time.
There are others and I suggest you read it for yourself here if you are a Shopify store owner.

Im not sure if this has always been there, but it is definitely news to me. Seems like the element of control just went out the window.

Talk about scary stuff.
 
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wade1mil

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You lose some control when you rely on any third party.

I'd guess this is more about illegal items or accounts with high risk like diet pill rebills or something.
 

craig1928

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standard account T&Cs for a lot of services.
 

MJ DeMarco

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We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service for any reason, without notice at any time.

I am actually wondering if this is new.

I'd like to guess that this is just in case you are selling something objectionable or illegal.

But it wouldn't surprise me nowadays that it's more than that, like they want to terminate your service if you voted for Trump or sell items against their political ideology. Nothing surprises me anymore with these big tech companies.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Fox

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Just for curiosity's sake, I checked back as far as 2014 and that exact phrasing was still in the terms.

@MJ DeMarco - Regarding that whole thing, Shopify actually refused to pull down Breitbart's store, essentially citing their platform as a form of free speech. The CEO's open letter about it is worth reading: In Support of Free Speech – Tobias Lütke – Medium

The best way to deal with those sort of demands is a straight NO.
The "outrage mob" need a reaction to keep going, if they sense you will cave into their demands it never stops.


Jonathan Schwartz, a Massachusetts developer who specializes in Shopify installations, describes the process in blunter terms. “Migrating a pre-existing store from one platform to another is, candidly, a royal pain in the a$$,” he says. That’s true whichever direction clients are going. “A lot of times, what I’m doing is helping them migrate from somewhere else to Shopify, and that can run them tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of dollars in branding things, development things, data-migration tasks.” It’s about as far as someone can get from the #DeleteUber campaign, where consumers could simply switch mobile apps and shift to a virtually identical service, Lyft.

Shopify has huge levels of control though so I don't there will be much real damage. Its easy to get a hashtag trending, when its $10,000 out of your pocket though a lot less will be taking real action.
 
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PTP

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I think Shopify SHOULD reserve the right to boot people. Smart.

Strangely enough while I dont like it personally, I agree with their actions and would do the same if the roles were reversed. Had I been Shopify, I would 100% want to reserve that right.

With that being said, it is up to the store owner to:

A) Be aware of the rule so as to gauge the risk level they fall into.

B) Plan accordingly for a worst case scenario.

You can never be to sure these days and it can never hurt to have a backup store for immediate use just in case.
 

Xavier X

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I don't see anything wrong with that phrase. It is (and should be) contained in the terms of use of almost every web property/service (in one form or the other).

If someone comes on your privately owned platform and puts out highly objectionable content or behavior, you should reserve the right to nuke them out of orbit. While "objectionable" is a subjective term, "privately owned" isn't.

Freedom of speech guarantees that you can stand in the street and state your opinions, without government prosecution.
It doesn't mean I'll allow you walk into my private living room and say the same, without kicking you out, if I object.

The limits of "free speech" within the confines of private space is exclusively the right of the owner to determine.

e.g If MJ bans someone from this forum, he hasn't violated their free speech. He has only enforced what's non-permissible on his private property.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Regarding that whole thing, Shopify actually refused to pull down Breitbart's store

Yes I knew that, but I was wondering if they were back tracking, and hence, the new language.

I checked back as far as 2014 and that exact phrasing was still in the terms.

That's great to hear ... that means it's really a stop-gap against illegal or objectionable things, such as child porn.
 
G

GuestUser450

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Nothing surprises me anymore with these big tech companies.
Hard not to see it as paid vs free.

The free services need eyeballs for their valuations so they kowtow to narratives whereas the paid services are more likely to value each dollar regardless of ideology. Big, free services owe us nothing and prove it repeatedly.
 

Roli

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There was a notice on my shopify store today saying that the terms of using shopify have been updated as of 4/3/17.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed there is now a "Shopify Rights" section.

The first right of shopify is the following gem:
  1. We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service for any reason, without notice at any time.
There are others and I suggest you read it for yourself here if you are a Shopify store owner.

Im not sure if this has always been there, but it is definitely news to me. Seems like the element of control just went out the window.

Talk about scary stuff.

I am yet to come across a 3rd party platform that doesn't have this exact clause in it. If you find one let me know :)
 
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Under-Dog

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Well like any business they have the right to refuse service to anyone right? I'm sure there have been cases of people using this platform for some shady shenanigans
 

ZeroTo100

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I disagree with it to an extent. Extent being the words "any reason." I feel like for "good reason" would be better term used. Now a days, every company out there who starts to gain traction wants to have a little bit of control over what you do. Yes, they provide a great service but look how many tech giants buy and invest in smaller tech firms. What if they bought a competing business to yours and your business runs on Shopify?

If Wordpress did this they would be out of business because millions of use their platform unethically or in ways they shouldn't.

JMHO

Control is key. You don't want any company that you pay to have the ability to shut you down for "any reason." For anything illegal such as selling things that shouldn't be sold such as drugs and what not they should absolutely shut these people down. But the average joe in business minding his own business working hard shouldn't have to pay the price and I think MJ made a good point about that. It was up pre 2014 so they are probably just keeping tabs on selling anything illegal - which they should!
 
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JAJT

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I feel like for "good reason" would be better term used.

It's legally much easier to do things for "no reason" rather than for "good reason".

Look at firing someone. If you fire them for a good reason, that reason can be disputed and argued and flaunted and waved around in the media and shit on. If you fire them for "no reason", they would have to prove it was really for a specific reason, which is a lot harder to fight, sounds a lot like speculation and people generally ignore it.

When you tell people "we've closed your store at our discretion, cheers" you don't really give them a lot of ammo to fire back with.
 
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ZeroTo100

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It's legally much easier to do things for "no reason" rather than for "good reason".

Look at firing someone. If you fire them for a good reason, that reason can be disputed and argued and flaunted and waved around in the media and shit on. If you fire them for "no reason", they would have to prove it was really for a specific reason, which is a lot harder to fight, sounds a lot like speculation and people generally ignore it.

When you tell people "we've closed your store at our discretion, cheers" you don't really give them a lot of ammo to fire back with.

This is true. Makes sense.
 

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