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Can any lawyers/legislative types comment on how this would be implemented assuming everyone in congress and the whitehouse supported the petition?
by dfc 14y ago
Can any lawyers/legislative types comment on how this would be implemented assuming everyone in congress and the whitehouse supported the petition?
- jrockway 14y agoSeems like it doesn't need any legislation: it can just be an FTC rule.
- dangrossman 14y agoThe FTC's power in that area comes from a very small piece of legislation, and is limited to only what that legislation provides. From 15 USC §45: > The Commission is hereby empowered and directed to prevent persons, partnerships, or corporations ... from using unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce. > The Commission shall have no authority under this section or section 57a of this title to declare unlawful an act or practice on the grounds that such act or practice is unfair unless the act or practice causes or is likely to cause substantial injury to consumers which is not reasonably avoidable by consumers themselves and not outweighed by countervailing benefits to consumers or to competition. Considering we have decades of clickwrap licenses being enforced in all levels of court, I don't think an FTC memo would be enough to declare software/media arriving with a license agreement illegal. IANAL of course.