[LINK] Fwd:FaceBook alert

[Rick Welykochy]

Kim Holburn wrote:

> How can they change the terms?  Isn't it a contract? 

IANAL, but a contract requires consideration, i.e. some form of
payment by one party to the other party. There is no consideration
in this case, and any use of the "free service" and agreement
relating to it does not form a contract.

That said, far too many T&C's attempt to circumvent existing laws
and rights. This is ineffective, since the law overrides any contradicting
terms in the T&C's. Thus, if the law says you have an inalienable
copyright to your work until you reassign it, Facebook cannot legally
reassign your copyright without your agreement.

Which brings us to another interesting point under law. Does a
button-click constitute informed consent to pages and pages
of T&C's? I personally do not think so, since it is *unreasonable*
(an important legal term) to assume that the clickee actually
read and understood the contents. As well, there is no signature
or similar that indicates that the user has read and understood
the T&C's. A button-click is not a signature. Think of "signing"
a contract or a cheque with a button click. It would not stand up
in a court of law, would it?

This harks back to the unenforceable "shrink wrap" licence. It was
ludicrous for Microsoft (for example) to state that once you
break the seal / plastic wrap on their product packaging you
implicitly agree to the EULA contained within. This is logically
impossible to do, since you cannot have read the EULA prior to
breaking the seal. Another piece of nonsense that I personally
doubt would stand up in court.

There is far too much of this kind of assumed consent being perpetrated
on the Internet. Some precedent setting cases are required to
once and for all demonstrate the shaky ground on which click-through
agreements are based.

Keep in mind that a third party may wish to claim ownership of your
property, perhaps because you are using their services for free, but
that hardly establishes the legal right to do so.

A bit of FUD can go a long way to intimidate the uneducated and uninformed.


cheers
rickw



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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving Instructor

Blessed are the cracked for they let in the light.
      -- Spike Milligan