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Thread: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

  1. #1
    unapologetic apologist
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    Thumbs up unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    http://drive.123-reg.co.uk

    been using 123-reg for domain names for years and found them very satisfactory. Found this link on the dvdoctor forums this morning, signed up, uploaded 25MB or so, and very slick it is!


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  3. #2
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    Re: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    Hmmm. There's several aspects to their terms and conditions that mean I would not consider using this service.

    For a start, it's free now .... but they reserve the right to charge in the future, and that by using the service, you agree that they can introduce such fees simply by giving you email notification and that your continued use implies acceptance of the fees. What if you don't get the notification? What if your cancellation goes missing? There is no suggestion as to how large such fees might be, or any limit placed on it, or to the period for which you will be committed. Suppose the first fee is for a five year term at £2000 per year?

    It's too open-ended, and it's opt-out, rather than opt-in. If it were phrased such that if they go fee-paying, then you have to overtly agree to the fee within a given period or it'll be assumed you DON'T want to continue, that would be different. But it isn't. It's a potential blank cheque.

    Secondly, as soon as you "share" any content, you give all virtually unlimited rights to any such material you store -
    you grant to HUMYO a limited license to use, modify, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce, and distribute your Shared Content on and through the HUMYO Services. The license you grant to HUMYO is non-exclusive, perpetual, fully-paid and royalty-free, sublicensable, and worldwide;

    Next is the idemnity clause.

    You shall indemnify us and keep us indemnified and hold us harmless from and against any breach by you of this Agreement and any claim brought against us by a third party resulting from the provision of the HUMYO Services by us to You and your use of the HUMYO Services including, without limitation, all claims, actions, proceedings, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, expenses (including reasonable legal costs and expenses), howsoever suffered or incurred by us in consequences of your breach or non-observance of any of the terms of this Agreement including if any Content that you post on the HUMYO Websites or through the HUMYO Services causes HUMYO to be liable to another.
    If they get sued somehow, for instance, over the provision of the service to you and your usage of it, you've agreed to pay all their "reasonable" legal costs and expenses. Again, for my taste, it's FAR too open-ended to be a liability I would accept in relation to the benefit I'd get from using the service, because potentially, you've agreed to reimburse legal costs that could run into tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds. That figure is essentially limitless, save only that it has to be "reasonable". That risk is large enough that for most people, you're risking bankruptcy.

    Are those risks likely? Probably not, especially if you're careful about what you upload and don't share it with anyone. But personally, I look at the potential benefit I'd gain from this, and the potential risk I'm exposed to, and there is absolutely no way I'd use it.

    Oh, and finally, while this appears to be promoted by 123-Reg, it appears to be an entirely separate company and the agreement you accept is not with 123-Reg (PIPEX).

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    mutantbass head Lee H's Avatar
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    Re: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    Nice digging there Saracen.

    Rule of the thumb with web services is that if they appear to good to be true, then they usually are.

  5. #4
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    Re: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    Well I signed up - won't be sharing anything using it, but it's going to make a handy place to dump backups of photos (not the only backup, mind).

    They reserve the right to charge in the future (well, they do say that their intention is to always provide a free service, but also to offer a premium version), but they don't have any payment details off me so they can't charge me... If they decide that it's pay up or lose it then I'll opt for the latter, but as an extra backup location I'll take it...for now at least.

    Cheers to the OP.

  6. #5
    Senior Member charleski's Avatar
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    Re: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    While it's always good to take a close look at the T&Cs, they aren't quite that onerous.

    If you look at the front page of the site, it's clear that it's being purposed as an online storage point which would allow people to share digital media with others. Section 2.4, allowing them to reproduce and distribute your content, is absolutely essential to allow that activity. They sensibly make explicit the fact that you retain ownership and copyright of your files. The Indemnity clause in section 7 is pretty standard as well and is necessary to protect them from kiddies who want to use it to host an mp3 collection for their friends.

    I agree that section 4.1 concerning fees is a little worrying, though if they don't have any payment details it's obviously unenforceable, and could possibly be challenged as being onerous if they tried to slip a charge in without proper notice.

    TBH, what worries me most is the front page: "You'll have an infinite amount of space to store and backup all your documents, pictures, music and videos securely online."
    Uhuh... So they won't mind if I offload a couple of terabytes of data onto their servers? Anyone advertising 'unlimited' net use is clearly not in possession of a proper business plan.

    So in general, it looks a bit too flaky to represent a truly secure data repository (that's not going to happen for free anyway), but worth a go if you want to dump some stuff on the web.

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    Re: unlimited free online storage at 123-reg!

    Quote Originally Posted by charleski View Post
    ....

    If you look at the front page of the site, it's clear that it's being purposed as an online storage point which would allow people to share digital media with others. Section 2.4, allowing them to reproduce and distribute your content, is absolutely essential to allow that activity. They sensibly make explicit the fact that you retain ownership and copyright of your files. The Indemnity clause in section 7 is pretty standard as well and is necessary to protect them from kiddies who want to use it to host an mp3 collection for their friends.
    2.4 may well be necessary to allow them to reproduce and distribute content, but that doesn't stop them from using the terms of that licence for other things. I have seen similar licences that limit their usage to YOUR usage. They have chosen not to do that and, furthermore, stipulate that the licence is both perpetual and sub-licensable. They can licence your material to others, with or without your knowledge or consent, because you've granted a licence to do it.

    Yes, you retain copyright of your files. They don't seek to restrict your usage of your own material. But that licence means you have virtually no control over what they chose to do with it.

    The indemnity clause may be standard, or a version of standard, but that doesn't affect the exposure you agree to. If agreeing to it is worth it to someone, then they can agree to it. But for me, that degree of exposure is absolutely not justified by the benefit the service provides. Note I didn't suggest that other people should or should not sign up. I merely pointed out the reasons why I feel it is not worth the associated risks.


    Quote Originally Posted by charleski View Post
    ....

    I agree that section 4.1 concerning fees is a little worrying, though if they don't have any payment details it's obviously unenforceable, and could possibly be challenged as being onerous if they tried to slip a charge in without proper notice.
    My view is that it's best not to agree to something if you're relying on it being unenforceable, because the only way you can establish it as being unenforceable is via a court. And, having agreed to it, you are then facing the uphill battle of establishing the grounds for it being unenforceable. As soon as a contract has a lack of clarity or any form of ambiguity built-in, there's the seeds for an argument as to exactly what it implies. To me, any service that purports to be free but includes a "you must opt out or we'll bill you if we change our mind" is unacceptable.


    The marketing appeal is obvious, as it is with anything that's "free", and there will be people that want to take it up. That's their choice. But if they're going to do so, they'll be best served by doing so in the full knowledge of the above rather than having not thought of it.

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