Did you know that the very reliable Multiply does not allow commercial use of its website?
According to its Terms and Conditions,
“The Multiply Web site is for the personal use of individual Members only and may not be used in connection with any commercial endeavors. Organizations, companies, and/or businesses may not become Members and should not use the Service or the Web site for any purpose. Illegal and/or unauthorized uses of the Web site, including collecting usernames and/or e-mail addresses of members by electronic or other means for the purpose of sending unsolicited e-mail and unauthorized framing of or linking to the Web site will be investigated, and appropriate legal action will be taken, including, without limitation, civil, criminal, and injunctive redress and the Member's account will be terminated.”(Source: http://multiply.com/info/tos)
With this being said, it would mean that all those individuals or businesses that use Multiply to sell all kinds of products and services are actually violating the law and are operating illegally. This would put into question the business practices of those involved, that they never bothered to read the rules and regulations of the site before engaging in any commercial endeavor.
But then again, Multiply has been an essential part in the spread of e-commerce in the country. More and more people are able to buy or sell products without ever having to leave their homes.
With this knowledge, what do you think is the right course of action? Should the commercial use of Multiply still continue and enrich e-commerce or should the law prevail?
By: Mikhail Gomez
I think the law should prevail. It's an agreement that should be followed by the parties involved. However, the problem here is that Multiply does not notify its users about the issues regarding E-commerce.
ReplyDeleteThe solution here is for both parties to learn more about the things that surround their relationship. Compliance of what has agreed upon must have the highest priority.
With all of these in full knowledge, I think that multiply will eventually be able to help increase e-commerce as long as it can realize the benefits it can reap.
I agree, Multiply has the prerogative in suing the users who violate the terms of the contracts. But I guess one has to start learning to read the EULA or TA. Aren't we all guilty of this? We see an impossibly long paragraph or document with even smaller font, we scroll down and just click I agree to the terms and conditions? Using the same reasoning that is employed in this article, one should then see that if we flood the market with counterfeit goods thus boosting the consumer activity in a certain industry does that make it right? I don't think so.
ReplyDelete