Breaching TOS

onshaper

Hi there,

I thought of something today and wanted to ask the question.

Let say you breach TOS, does Onshape have the right close your account?

Lets say they close your account, do you maintain the rights to your data?

Lets say you maintain the rights to your data, how is it delivered to you when your account is closed?

With traditional CAD systems this was never a concern because you owned the software and your data.

dan_shore

Thanks for your questions, and for your support of Onshape!

Before addressing the technicalities of the ToS, I will share a quote from our Core Values: “Your intellectual property is your lifeblood, and we consider our responsibility to protect it as a sacred trust.” This is a critical guiding philosophy, and it starts from the principle that your data is yours, not ours.

You can read the Core Values in more detail here: https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/onshapes-core-values-our-statement-of-principles

With that as context, yes, Onshape has the right to close your account if you violate our Terms of Service. As you might imagine, we view this as a “last resort” option that likely will occur only in extremely rare cases. Given that your data is yours, we would enable you to receive your data via export in a supported format that is usable by you, provided that we can lawfully do so.

A termination provision is universally used by companies in their Terms of Service -- not because they expect to make use of it, but because they need to reserve the right to act in unforeseen and highly extreme circumstances. We agree with the need to reserve flexibility in this manner -- but in the context of our Core Values, we are hopeful that our users nonetheless will buy in to the trust-based relationships we seek to establish with them.

Sorry for the long-winded answer, but these are important questions, and we take them very seriously.

pete_yodis

@onshaper

This might not answer your question directly, but it gives you an idea that Onshape doesn't want to be a company where you as a customer may feel trapped.

https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/onshapes-core-values-our-statement-of-principles

In what way are you thinking about the terms of service being breached?

pete_yodis

pete_yodis said:

@onshaper

This might not answer your question directly, but it gives you an idea that Onshape doesn't want to be a company where you as a customer may feel trapped.

https://www.onshape.com/cad-blog/onshapes-core-values-our-statement-of-principles

In what way are you thinking about the terms of service being breached?

Oops.  Sorry to post, Dan.  Looks like you beat me to it as I was writing mine!

3dcad

onshaper said:

clip..

With traditional CAD systems this was never a concern because you owned the software and your data.

But if they freeze your license for some reason you will have a bunch of so called cad files in your own hard drive that you can't open..

This was never a concern when you owned software, which is not the case anymore.. even if software is installed locally, licensing is often in cloud. 

You asked a good question @onshaper , just wanted to clarify the current state of 'traditional' software.

_Ðave_

From what I have experienced with Onshape to date, A trust based relationship works fine with me on this matter.

andrew_troup

3dcad said:

onshaper said:

clip..

With traditional CAD systems this was never a concern because you owned the software and your data.

But if they freeze your license for some reason you will have a bunch of so called cad files in your own hard drive that you can't open..

This was never a concern when you owned software, which is not the case anymore.. even if software is installed locally, licensing is often in cloud. 

You asked a good question @onshaper , just wanted to clarify the current state of 'traditional' software.

Even in the days of dongles, you were only in provisional custody of your CAD data
(if the company folded or you failed to meet with their approval), until you 

1) lost or damaged your dongle, or
2) the dongle spat the dummy

Which was never an entirely comfortable state of affairs.