I'm not sure this will be a popular sentiment here, but I think we might want some sort of consumer protection laws dealing with things like this. Have a sort of mandatory cooldown period for (paid?) web services after a notification of cessation (or maybe a major restructuring?) of services. Somewhat like an eviction notice.
Of course people will argue that regulatory action is unnecessary: if sudden terminations are an issue, people will naturally flock to services which guarantee due notice through terms of service.
I'm so liberal I'm practically a socialist, but I don't see how you could have this sort of regulation without it having a chilling effect on new services. Generally when an event like this happens, the company behind the service is dissolved, so who is even on the hook for keeping the data available?
This is a very real practical problem. I basically never use any SaaS app that isn't at least as established as, say, Basecamp and if enough people think like me you've got a horrible chicken and egg problem. I'm not sure how you fix it, but I don't think it is via laws.
Caveat emptor. Also never trust that a single copy of anything won't vanish like a fart in the wind one day. If stuff is important to you, keep your own copies.
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I'm not sure this will be a popular sentiment here, but I think we might want some sort of consumer protection laws dealing with things like this. Have a sort of mandatory cooldown period for (paid?) web services after a notification of cessation (or maybe a major restructuring?) of services. Somewhat like an eviction notice.
Of course people will argue that regulatory action is unnecessary: if sudden terminations are an issue, people will naturally flock to services which guarantee due notice through terms of service.
I'm so liberal I'm practically a socialist, but I don't see how you could have this sort of regulation without it having a chilling effect on new services. Generally when an event like this happens, the company behind the service is dissolved, so who is even on the hook for keeping the data available?
This is a very real practical problem. I basically never use any SaaS app that isn't at least as established as, say, Basecamp and if enough people think like me you've got a horrible chicken and egg problem. I'm not sure how you fix it, but I don't think it is via laws.
One way to fix the chicken/egg problem is to start off by decoupling the data storage from the application.
Disclaimer: I'm the lead developer on OpenPhoto which does just this.
http://theopenphotoproject.org
An argument that rests on the assumption that people read and pay attention to the TOS?
I would love to see someone make that argument and try to keep a straight face at the same time.
Caveat emptor. Also never trust that a single copy of anything won't vanish like a fart in the wind one day. If stuff is important to you, keep your own copies.