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At what point is it your responsibility to verify that something you're using is keeping it's end of the bargain? Ceding all responsibility doesn't seem like th

At what point is it your responsibility to verify that something you're using is keeping it's end of the bargain? Ceding all responsibility doesn't seem like the answer either. While forced arbitration and other crappy things in contracts suck, a company protecting itself against explicitly stupid or bad behavior seems reasonable. While it's reasonable to expect a consumer to understand hot coffee is hot, its unreasonable to say that a customer who has purchased coffee that gives them second degree burns had reasonable understanding of the risks. I think the only real solution would be putting customers through plain English video presentations of what rights are present or excluded for every piece of software. This would be terribly inconvenient, however it would make sure people only installed software they trusted and actually needed.

admax88q 7y ago
> Ceding all responsibility doesn't seem like the answer either. Whether I cede my responsibility or not does not excuse a company from acting morally or not. You can't act immorally and say its okay because your users have given informed consent, when you know for a fact that they don't. Studies show that it would take over a year for an average user to read all the EULAs that they agree to in a year. It is literally impossible for an average user to read all the agreements they "agree" to in the average case of a computer user. > I think the only real solution... I'm not sure that this problem needs a solution exactly. The status quo is fairly reasonable, companies are expected to act morally and when they don't they get called out in social media and people move on to other companies. The primary threat to this model working is when overly pedantic people on HN and other sites excuse companies actions by saying things like "Well actually you _did_ agree to it by the EULA, so you shouldn't be suprised that they took your first born child, next time pay more attention to what you agree to!"

admax88q 7y ago

> Ceding all responsibility doesn't seem like the answer either. Whether I cede my responsibility or not does not excuse a company from acting morally or not. You can't act immorally and say its okay because your users have given informed consent, when you know for a fact that they don't. Studies show that it would take over a year for an average user to read all the EULAs that they agree to in a year. It is literally impossible for an average user to read all the agreements they "agree" to in the average case of a computer user. > I think the only real solution... I'm not sure that this problem needs a solution exactly. The status quo is fairly reasonable, companies are expected to act morally and when they don't they get called out in social media and people move on to other companies. The primary threat to this model working is when overly pedantic people on HN and other sites excuse companies actions by saying things like "Well actually you _did_ agree to it by the EULA, so you shouldn't be suprised that they took your first born child, next time pay more attention to what you agree to!"