software terms-of-service interpretation
Interpretation of &quot;Code&quot; and &quot;Programs&quot;
<p>I've recently came across a paragraph in the <a href="https://help.bigcartel.com/merchant-user-agreement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Merchant User Agreement</a> of <a href="http://bigcartel.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Big Cartel</a>, specifically paragraph 5.2, called "<em>Prohibited and Restricted Activities</em>"</p>

<p>The paragraph states that offering the following is illegal</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Code or similar automatic items, programs, or processes, such as automated software, data mining software, scrapers, and ‘bots</p>
</blockquote>

<p><em>I'm quite sure that this paragraph was taken into the agreement to forbid the selling of (automated-)bots, that are for example used in online games to "farm" experience and/or items, as well as data-miners/scrapers, that - for my understanding - grab information off the internet of from other data-sources, ie. corporate adresses from the web.</em></p>

<p>1) Regarding "<em>Code or similar automatic items</em>.." for my understanding as a software developer of 18 years, code is inherently not an automatic item nor is it similar to being automatic. It's text. Text doesn't do anything. Instead it can be turned into an <em>automatic item</em> LIKE a <em>program</em> (ie. compiled), <em>process</em> (ie. interpreted) or <em>automated software</em> (kind of double-ensure the former two ways). <strong>How is code being interpreted here?</strong> Isn't the wording here so bad, that essentially selling <strong>any</strong> type of code is not allowed?</p>

<p>2) Regarding "<em>automatic items, programs, or processes, <strong>such as</strong> automated software, data mining software, scrapers, and ‘bots</em>". <strong>Does <em>such as</em> indicate examples, hence, bot/scraper/dataminer are an examples but <em>not</em> an exclusive list of forbidden code/software?</strong> Thereby any software is forbidden?</p>

<p>It means you can’t sell the uncompiled code or the ready to run application so your understanding of the words used is correct. The list is not exhaustive but it is illustrative of the types of programs you cannot sell - it does not prohibit sale of programs that are not of that type.</p>
