Adam Gaskins

2020-03-08 19:24:11

APPALLING THINGS IN THE VS CODE LICENSE!

APPALLING THINGS IN VS CODE LICENSE

"It also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages." - Microsoft license

There is also ample ass-covering for data-collection and surveillance:

2. DATA.
Data Collection. The software may collect information about you and your use of the software, and send that to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to provide services and improve our products and services. You may opt-out of many of these scenarios, but not all, as described in the product documentation located at https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/faq#_how-to-disable-telemetry-reporting. There may also be some features in the software that may enable you and Microsoft to collect data from users of your applications. If you use these features, you must comply with applicable law, including providing appropriate notices to users of your applications together with Microsoft’s privacy statement. Our privacy statement is located at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=824704. You can learn more about data collection and use in the help documentation and our privacy statement. Your use of the software operates as your consent to these practices.
Processing of Personal Data. To the extent Microsoft is a processor or subprocessor of personal data in connection with the software, Microsoft makes the commitments in the European Union General Data Protection Regulation Terms of the Online Services Terms to all customers effective May 25, 2018, at https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9840733.

If you're okay with the shady data collection, maybe this will worry you; even less assuring is that they have a clause which specifically covers their ass for malicious intent that they may or may not have premeditated?!?

12. LIMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES.
You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers only direct damages up to U.S. .00. You cannot recover any other damages, including consequential, lost profits, special, indirect or incidental damages.

This limitation applies to (a) anything related to the software, services, content (including code) on third party Internet sites, or third party applications; and (b) claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, guarantee or condition, strict liability, negligence, or other tort to the extent permitted by applicable law.

It also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages. The above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you because your state or country may not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental, consequential or other damages.

Reference: https://code.visualstudio.com/license

I get it, VS Code is slick and easy to jump in to, but by using it you are clearly compromising your rights and morality by supporting this Microsoft product! There are many other good IDEs, some as easy to jump in to as VS Code, others take a bit more setup... but it's well worth finding an open-source alternative to a product made by a company that actively wants to infiltrate & dissolve our community!

Please share what language(s) you use and your suggestions for good non-proprietary alternatives to VS Code! It's bad enough they own Github now (which is a whole other can of worms) but this is something we can possibly have a larger impact on!

Thanks for reading! 😀

#microsoft #vscode #visualstudio #license #opensource #open-source #oss #fsf #vim #neovim #spacevim #emacs #gnuemacs #pycharm #spyder #pyzo #ide #linux #gnulinux #windows #mswindows #windows10 #macos #osx

License - Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code license

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