alt Hacker NewsI was all for trying it until I saw this in the License Agreement:
"4.1. Zed's Use of Customer Data Customer hereby grants Zed a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-sublicensable (except to service providers and Customer’s designees), non-transferable (except as set forth in Section 15.1) right to use, copy, store, disclose, transmit, transfer, display, modify, create derivative works from, collect, access, store, host, or otherwise process (“Process”) any materials that Customer inputs into or otherwise makes available to the Service (including prompts and other written content) (collectively, “Customer Data”) solely: (a) to perform its obligations set forth in the Terms, including its Support obligations as applicable; (b) to derive and generate Telemetry (see Section 4.4); and (c) as necessary to comply with applicable Laws. Except as required by applicable Laws, Zed will not provide Customer Data to any person or entity other than Customer’s designees (including pursuant to Section 7) or service providers."
Sorry, no I don't agree to make my source code and the product I am working to give you "non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-sublicensable (except to service providers and Customer’s designees), non-transferable (except as set forth in Section 15.1) right to use, copy, store, disclose, transmit, transfer, display, modify, create derivative works from, collect, access, store, host, or otherwise process (“Process”) any materials that Customer inputs into or otherwise makes available to the Service (including prompts and other written content)"
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wait, there's more [copied from the top comment of their youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6Bns1T77HM)] -
1. Mandatory arbitration by default. You waive your right to a jury trial and cannot join class action lawsuits. You have only 30 days to opt out after agreeing to the terms.
2. 1-year statute of limitations. You must file any legal claim within one year, which is much shorter than the default period under most state laws.
3. Zed can terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with no liability. No notice is required, and they owe you nothing if they pull the plug.
4. Autocomplete sends your code to AI providers in the background unless you turn it off. Worth knowing if you're working on proprietary or sensitive code.
5. No guarantees about data retention. If your payment lapses, they reserve the right to delete your account and all associated data with no liability.
6. All fees are non-refundable except where required by law, with one narrow exception for disagreeing with modified terms.
7. Zed can modify the terms at any time. For existing users, material changes take effect after just 30 days, and continued use counts as acceptance.
8. Zed can use your name, logo, and brand in their marketing without asking. You'd have to send a written request to stop them.
9. No warranties whatsoever. The service is "as is", they disclaim all responsibility for errors, data loss, or AI-generated output being inaccurate or harmful.
10. Liability is capped very low, at most, whatever you paid in the last 12 months, or $100, whichever is higher.
I'm not a lawyer, but the only part of this that seems objectionable is the "telemetry" bit, the rest of it basically seems to say "we can use things you send us to do the things you asked us to do, including for support purposes. We can comply with the law as necessary (e.g. responding to warrants)".
That said the definition of "telemetry" is so broad that I think it would include training a LLM and the like. Telemetry is defined in section 4.4 as
> Zed may collect, generate, and Process information, including technical logs, metrics, and data and learnings, related to the Software and Service (“Telemetry”) to improve and support the Services and for other lawful business purposes.
I guess that it's so opaque is also objectionable. Contracts don't have to be inscrutable.
I understand that differently. The last part of the statement is important I think. It reads as if this grants them the right to "Process" "Customer Data": 1. to perform its obligations, including support obligations, 2. to perform telemetry, 3. when required by law.
This is sensible, no?
That license agreement covers their online service if you opt in to use it. This reads like every ToS for a SaaS product I’ve read in ages. If you don’t want to use their paid service, don’t create an account and configure it in Zed, and then this doesn’t apply to you.
I’m not associated with Zed in any way except as a user. That said, this is a bonkers misinterpretation of their ToS. You don’t grant them the right to eat all your data just by using the editor. You do give them the right to process your data if you sign up for an account and opt in to send them all your data for processing.
Can't you just build the source and run it without giving them any information? Or does the editor itself require information and phone home while running?
You made me curious. Found this fork https://github.com/zedless-editor/zedless Wdyt?
Wasn't that legalize the reason Gram got created?
Ouch, that was one of the quickest uninstalls after scrolling and reading this.
Oof. Is this for the software itself or their add-on LLM subscription?
Is Zed open source or not?
If it's open source it can't have a license agreement to use the software itself
Or is this an agreement to use some cloud service? Supposedly you can opt to not use it
Elsewhere people said that "even if you disable telemetry, Zed can still collect telemetry" but, it being open source means you're still in control
No open source license can force you to run misfeatures
Why would they have your code in the first place?
Curious, how does this compare to the editor you use?
Any local editor that includes any sort of telemetry whatsoever is an instant nonstarter for me.
What’s local stays entirely and totally local, always and every time, otherwise what’s the point?
I encourage you to mail them specifically about this concern.
If it is a matter of communication, they can fix and clarify it. If it's genuinely scummy, they can change their approach now that they know they were caught in the act
Yeah this really makes you wonder... now, they are to best of my knowledge fantastic people, so I guess some lawyer slipped this in. I would love to hear some clarification and will always give them benefit of the doubt.
So far they've been great and product is fantastic as you know.
wouldn't touch this editor with a 10 foot pole. no i am not giving them the rights to use my code for their product. hell no. thanks for highlighting this. people need to making a bigger deal about it. maybe they will rethink their tos.
This language fits common SaaS templates. Let me illustrate by removing chunks and labeling them:
Customer hereby grants Zed
{{ broad list of rights }}
solely:
{{ for these purposes }}
Also see "4.4. Telemetry: .... For avoidance of doubt, Telemetry expressly does not include Customer Data."
My two cents: I'm not worried about Zed's contract here. Much more important to pay attention to when your data goes to third-party AI providers: read _their_ contract language.
Meta-comment: Don't let a well-meaning comment like the above trigger a panic. Better to get familiar with typical contracts and/or build your personal network for legal advice.
P.S. Look out for shameless legal slop on the Web, I "promise.legal" it is out there.
Oh no.. fuck them, not this shit again..
With AI being so good why isn't someone making fully open source alternatives to all this crap by now?
Oh Zed is open source, maybe Codex/Claude can make a VSCodium-like fork off it?
The comment above has started a sh-tstorm. Please, slow down and learn about the details before jumping to conclusions. Most of us here did NOT "go pro" in the law. [1] For those that want to educate themselves, you could do worse than immediately leave HN and go _learn_:
1. SaaS Agreements: Key Contractual Provisions https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/bu...
2. Cornell Law School's Wex: https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex
3. Coursera : American Contract Law I (Yale prof): https://www.coursera.org/learn/contracts-1
4. Software as a Service (SaaS) Agreements: Thomson Reuters/Westlaw (paywalled; trial available) https://content.next.westlaw.com/practical-law/document/I61c...
If anyone has good detailed resources that are free, please add.
[1] IANAL but I wasn't that far from going down that path. I've worked for a legal-tech startup, did really well in an undergrad Constitutional Law class, incorporated several small companies, managed lots of contractor agreements. So, I know from experience: legal language is weird and specific in ways you may not realize. So be intellectually humble and defer judgment until you talk to a legal expert. Hopefully people more experienced than I can weigh in with more specifics.
[dead]
Please don't be a buzz kill. Probably agreed to something 10 times worse just by using this website and whatever device you're visiting on.
Aren't you forgetting the part that says "solely: (a) to perform its obligations set forth in the Terms, including its Support obligations as applicable; (b) to derive and generate Telemetry (see Section 4.4); and (c) as necessary to comply with applicable Laws. Except as required by applicable Laws, Zed will not provide Customer Data to any person or entity other than Customer’s designees (including pursuant to Section 7) or service providers."
Seems like legalese to be able to take that data for support reasons, telemetry, and local laws that require that data be sent to them. I think ignoring this portion is a little uncharitable to them.