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Comment by mcherm | Hacker News Reader

There is a serious legal question about whether or not a ToS for a website is enforceable. Probably, if ANY ToS is enforceable then this one is. But it's an open question. The argument against enforceability goes something like this:

TOS enforcement stems from contract law. A principle of contract law says that a contract is binding on both parties if they agreed to it, but there must be SOME benefit to each party. A TOS between a website and its users clearly meets this threshold, but in this case agiletortoise didn't gain any benefit from the website -- he simply wrote a program that directed the user's browser to go there.

That being said, the best solution is the one that agiletortoise used: simply direct people to someplace less hostile, like Google, Bing, or Wikipedia, instead of Wolfram Alpha. Wolfram Alpha loses, everyone else wins.

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but in this case agiletortoise didn't gain any benefit from the website -- he simply wrote a program that directed the user's browser to go there.

I don't get that. Doesn't agiletortoise get benefit when their users get benefit?

Yes, I got a benefit. There were users that like the Wolfram links and will be sorry they are gone.

As I said in my post, I'm fine with it. I think Wolfram's Terms are OK. I think it's a bit tenuous only in that if they were really serious about it, they could enforce that requirement in their code. They are not doing that, because it's to their benefit to allow some linking -- they are just reserving the right to selective enforce those terms, which seems a bit sleazy to me.

- agiletortoise

I think there is a very plausible argument to be made that it was your CUSTOMERS who benefited, not you.

In other words, I think that if Wolfram chose to sue you for thousands of dollars plus court costs because you violated your contract with them that you would be able to say, in defense, "I never agreed to anything." Since Wolfram delivered the goods (some answers, in this case) to the USERS of your application, not to you, I think this might be a valid defense.

Of course, the strictures of polite behavior extend further than the iron force of the law. Polite behavior suggests that when they ask you not to link to them you shouldn't... which is exactly what you did.

I don't know your product, but if your link takes them to the actual Alpha page, and they can interact with the Alpha page, you should make the argument that you're bringing them customers. I think if they're reasonable, they may actually appreciate the traffic in that case.

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