API for Danger HipTop Reportedly Has Onerous Legal Restrictions Attached
Boing Boing reports that Danger has relaxed restrictions in the Terms of Service for the API for its Hiptop mobile device. However, those terms of service are, according to Cory Doctorow, overly restrictive:
People have said that the restrictions are necessary to keep apps from sucking too much bandwidth or to prevent malware from being installed on users' devices -- but these are the same risks borne by ISPs that allow anyone to connect any PC, with any software, to their network. What's more, it discounts the possibility that apps could be developed that reduce the bandwidth sucked by a device.... Likewise, it discounts the possibility that users can distinguish between good and malicious software, say, by installing software released or recommended by people they trust.