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> nobody wants to waste time reading them How about a law that requires the party presenting legal paperwork to show that the recipient could have read the doc
by pdkl95 9y ago
> nobody wants to waste time reading them
How about a law that requires the party presenting legal paperwork to show that the recipient could have read the document. Use an algorithmic method to estimate the reading time, take off ~33% to account for variance in reading ability, and declare that the minimum time that must be spent with the document.
If you cannot show that e.g. someone clicked "I Agree" at lest 5 minutes (or whatever) after they received the ToS text, then the court will assume prima facie that the have not read the ToS and are not responsible for anything in it. The friction this would add to the checkout/signup process grows with the document size, creating an incentive to write short and simple ToS.
- verinus 9y agoNo thank you. How about present your TOS in a form that is understandable by the average user in a span of 2 minutes? Without being a lawyer...(and I doubt you have 2 minutes at all)
- simion314 9y agoThe OP point was that the app creator will be forced to consider how many lines of text will he put in the EULA, if adding such a law with a force timeout and your EULA means the user has to wait 10 minutes you have to think about removing some crap. Don't do creepy things should be a different law
- drawnwren 9y agoVarious ToSes already attempt this. Either by forcing you to scroll to the end, timing you, or by putting verification next to each paragraph. Still, no one reads them. The problem is putting a legal contract before a leisure app. I'd rather see legislation that requires the reading level and length of the ToS to match the reading level and attention span of the average user.
- seanp2k2 9y agoThe problem, as I’m sure you’re aware, is that the reading level and attention span in this case are minimal. People click through ToSes just as they click through installers. Even if the ToS was 5 words on the screen in 36pt bold font saying “WE COLLECT: Text, call, and contact data”, people would still not take the time to read or understand or care about what that actually means. They want to see cat / friend / baby photos, and will mash buttons until that happens, onboarding processes and tutorials be damned.
- QasimK 9y agoI think that’s a good way to create an incentive to write short TOSs. They shouldn’t be legally enforceable unless people are actually reading them. Nothing good can come out of that.