Posted on September 20, 2018 at 12:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

If you’re on Kboards, you’re well aware of the concern surrounding the forum’s new owners and the changed terms of service.

The Passive Voice, upon receiving a tip about this, did some research into VerticalScope and shared it here, for those curious. 

UPDATE: David Gaughran later reached out to tell Passive Guy that the majority owner of Vertical Scope is Canadian media giant Torstar – the same company that formerly owned Harlequin.

Passive Guy also pasted the new terms of service in that post and emphasized parts that he, as a lawyer who nevertheless is not offering legal advice, found interesting.

And as always, the commenters chime in with thoughtful insights.

Categories: Behind the scenes

Comments
Your comment highlighted one of the differences between lawyers and librarians, two groups who are often asked for advice. Librarians almost always seem to be happy to give advice. Lawyers (on the advice (there's that word again) of their malpractice insurers) are nervous about giving legal advice outside of a formal attorney/client relationship because someone, somewhere sued a lawyer for giving bad advice when the lawyer was casually commenting about this or that. I think the world would be a better place if both librarians and lawyers could give advice in the same way.
Passive Guy | thepassivevoice.com | 9/21/18 at 11:28 AM
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