Vultr wants its users to grant full, perpetual, commercial rights, users claim

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In its terms and conditions (last updated on January 8th, 2024), Vultr expects users to grant the rights to their stored content.

Vultr is an “advanced cloud platform” for developers and businesses. The company has made its name around the world as a provider of various cloud services.

Despite the update being released a few months ago, various forums recently began sharing the news about the company wanting its users to grant “a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide license.”

This “license” would allow them to “use, reproduce, process, adapt, publicly perform, publicly display, modify, prepare derivative works, publish, transmit and distribute” content that has been stored through Vultr.

So, on what grounds does Vultr believe it has rights to user content? According to its terms and conditions, it explains that it’s in exchange for the company providing its services to its customers.

The news stirred quite a discussion online, with some questioning the fairness of the terms and others being appalled by the situation. Overall, it’s made many people wonder whether it’s smart to use such a service at all.

"Vultr wants to ensure our customers understand they own their content. Anything you deploy on Vultr infrastructure you own and remains yours.
“The referenced terms of service related specifically to content you provide to us on our public mediums (for example, a discussion forum) for purposes of rendering our services to you. This is wholly unrelated to your own private content that you deploy on your Vultr servers.
“We are actively working to clarify the language used in our Terms of Service for over 2 years.”