Truth about chess.com TOS

We have all heard about the Terms of Service, those invisible rules than say how this site is supposed to work

But it's time to unveil the truth.

You may think that the TOS basically says: don't cheat, don't have multiple accounts, don't troll the forums.

ONLY partially correct

Some interesting quotes from the TOS (obviously out of context, as they must be). You  can't have read them before, because nobody reads online contracts.

"If we are involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur"

"CHESS.COM AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS MAKE NO WARRANTY THAT (i) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS; (ii) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; (iii) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; (iv) THE QUALITY OF ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, INFORMATION OR OTHER MATERIAL PURCHASED OR OBTAINED BY YOU THROUGH THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS; AND (v) ANY ERRORS IN THE SOFTWARE USED TO ACCESS OR PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE WILL BE CORRECTED. "

"ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS ACCESSED AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. "

"YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT CHESS.COM AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, PARTNERS AND LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, LOSS OF GOODWILL, EQUIPMENT DOWNTIME, OR FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, EVEN IF CHESS.COM HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES, RELATING TO CHESS.COM, THE SERVICE OR ANY CONTENT APPEARING ON OR UPLOADED TO THE SERVICE. "

Caps are used because that's the way the contract is written, I just copied everything literally

Enjoy

https://www.chess.com/legal

I'm not sure what your point of the thread is supposed to be. The TOS is there for anyone to read, if he cares to read it. I did read it completely when I joined the site.

"If we are involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. You acknowledge that such transfers may occur"

At least Chess.com is being honest with you. For decades, Radio Shack swore with its hand on the bible that they would never sell your personal information. Of course, when they filed for bankruptcy recently, that's exactly what they wanted to do.

Obviously, if that information wasn't available, this thread wouldn't exist.

Can you make this essay a bit shorter?
 

Well, I don't understand how you can claim that the rules are invisible if they exist and people can read them if they care to put in a few minutes of effort.

A company that would only seel or transfer information under those circumstances is practically a candidate for sainthood (by the standards of most companies...

As for the portion in caps it looks like pretty standard boilerplate to me... 

They're standard, but only because the standard is very low

Hehehe! I'm not denying that. It serves only so that companies can avoid being sued for not doing things that customers assume that they should... a better guarantee of companies treating their customers well is the fear of losing a lot of business if too many customers get annoyed with them. 

Pretty much any commercial site you join will have pretty much the same or very similar text on their site. And the link you provided is on the footer of virtually every page. I also imagine a link is provided at sign up (I don't recall).

Not sure what you feel the big deal is. 

The big deal is people don't read the TOS and therefore ignore how this site works.

Well, the contract says that, in case chess.com is bought, the service should be maintained without interruptions, with the same quality as before. The only really worrying part about it is really the transferring of private information.

No one stops them from doing so and the TOS are not hidden. So, you should have titled the topic The Truth About People Not Reading the TOS 

That would attract less views...Remember, tergiversation is the key.

I learned a new word today heh.

And the more one posts threads that fail to convey any useful information, the more one might be looked upon as exhibiting trollish behavior.

[Edit] - It seems to me that "these people" have a "thread creation quota" which must be met. I guess the "publish or perish" principle applies for these people.

I never read these things.... It is often all the same....I don t care about it.

I signed a contract with my editor and there was a clause that established a minimum number of threads a year.

I'm confused. Are you talking about TOS or kingofshedinjas topics? 

Both.