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>...is the wrong reason.... is a better reason. I will suggest another reason, already built into contract law, these agreements/contracts are unconscionable.
by throwaway_USD 6y ago
>...is the wrong reason.... is a better reason.
I will suggest another reason, already built into contract law, these agreements/contracts are unconscionable.
Generally where a contract would otherwise be enforceable, having met all the legal elements of a legally enforceable contract, the Court does not enforce the contract finding is would be unconscionable.
There are all sorts of reasons a court would find it unconscionable to enforce an otherwise legally binding agreement/contract, so these cases really get into the nitty gritty facts. However, a typical example of an unconscionable contract is where one party is an experienced dealer in a type of business, while the other party is an average consumer. I know this basically sounds like every agreement between a business and consumer, but in practice its not (again you would have to begin reading tons of case law to get an idea). However, consider every single social media platform that builds into their agreements they have the right to modify the terms with or without actual notice to the users of said modification...that is about as unconscionable as it gets.
Back in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) days, where proponents always claimed "the code is the law" and if the code allowed investor money to be stolen, that wasn't a hack or breach of contract, rather it was a contractual right the investor agreed to (even in light of plain English marketing contrary to the actual code, even though the marketing materials disclaimed: "the code is the law")...I always explained, and was often down voted into oblivion, a court would never enforce such a agreement/smart contract as it would be unconscionable.
- nshepperd 6y agoIMO they're not even contracts. The idea that there is a 'meeting of the minds' when I click through an installation dialog or website privacy policy, without even reading it, while screaming at my computer "I do not agree!" is ridiculous.
- throwaway_USD 6y ago>The idea that there is a 'meeting of the minds' when I click through an installation dialog or website privacy policy This is a fantastic point with respect to these online agreements because of analytics. Just as you say, someone clicks through these installation/website signup screens, click agree, etc... It is very easy to prove an agreement would take a minimum of x minutes to read through, yet these tech companies would have knowledge the user spent 1-2 seconds on the contract page/dialog box before clicking agree, therefore, they had knowledge the user did not and could not have read the same before agreeing.