Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 06:16:55 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Homestead Suspension



Your Homestead (SunsetStrip/Bar/3907) 
has been suspended based upon our belief that you are in violation of 
the Yahoo! GeoCities Terms of Service.  Your Homestead will be deleted 
and the associated Yahoo! account is subject to closure 7 days from 
the date on which this message was sent.  If you feel that your site 
has been suspended erroneously or you have other questions, please 
write to [email protected] BEFORE the end of this 7 day period.



By creating and using your Yahoo! Geocities account, you agree to abide 
by Yahoo! GeoCities Terms of Service (TOS).  Pursuant to the TOS, Yahoo! 
reserves the right to terminate your account or otherwise prohibit use 
of your account in the event that, among other things, Yahoo! believes 
that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit
of the TOS.



Should you decide to build another Homestead, please pay close attention
to the Terms of Service. In particular, please note paragraph (o):



	You agree to not use the Service to:
	...



	(o) use your home page (or directory) as storage for remote loading 
	or as a door or signpost to another home page, whether inside 
	or beyond Yahoo GeoCities;"



We encourage you to review the Yahoo! GeoCities Terms of Service at:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/geoterms.html.



Thank you for your cooperation.



Regards,



GeoCities



      

I responded to this message:

Please tell me what needs to change on my web site at
geocities to comply with your TOS.  I don't understand
what I have there that is in violation.



Thank you
      

Their response:

???

April 28, 2000

I am impatient and will assume what their answer will be and I most likely will not even get an answer... So, I will make my arguement "here"...

	You agree to not use the Service to:
	...



	(o) use your home page (or directory) as storage for remote loading 
	or as a door or signpost to another home page, whether inside 
	or beyond Yahoo GeoCities;"

I recently put a pdf and mp3 file on my web site at GeoCities. I thought. Both of these files are able to be viewed and heard in a properly configured web browser. Technically speaking, their TOS says everything you put on their servers is in violation of their TOS. ... storage for remote loading ... Isn't an HTML file being stored there and remotely loaded everytime someone looks at it when they're surfing? AND is a "link" not ... a door or signpost to another home page ... ??? I recall reading something in their TOS on this issue. It's too bad the lawyers and techno weenies don't know how to communicate very well.

My feelings on the matter here are:

Yahoo / GeoCities will give you free web space and will take it away at their discretion. Having lost the files I had there because of a technicality in their TOS, I will return to my stance that a web page on GeoCities is a bad idea...

Now I gotta waste the time cleaning up the mess resulting from thinking GeoCities was a good thing...

NOT!