Boing Boing: Web contracts can't be changed without notice

View a recent day: August 20 | August 19 | August 18 | previous days | by month and year

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Web contracts can't be changed without notice

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a web "contract" -- that is, the ridiculous "terms of service" that you agree to just by looking at a web-page -- can't be changed without notice, something that's standard in most of these "agreements."

This is a rare, overdue moment of sanity from the legal system about web agreements, which are universally abusive and one-sided.

"How hard is it to send out an e-mail letting people know about [any changes]?" she said.
According to the court documents, Douglas signed a contract for service with America Online. The business was then acquired by Talk America, which continued to provide telephone service to AOL's former customers. However, Talk America changed the contract AOL had with its customers and posted those changes on its Web site without notifying the customers first.

Link (via /.)

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:23:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

View a recent day: August 20, 2007 | August 19, 2007 | August 18, 2007 | August 17, 2007 | August 16, 2007 | August 15, 2007 | August 14, 2007 | previous days | all BB archives by month and year

suggest a link \| defeat censorware \| rss \| archives \| t-shirts \| digital emporium \| podcast feed \| mark \| cory \| david \| xeni \| john
Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	View a recent day: August 20 \| August 19 \| August 18 \| previous days \| by month and year Sunday, July 29, 2007 Web contracts can't be changed without notice The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a web "contract" -- that is, the ridiculous "terms of service" that you agree to just by looking at a web-page -- can't be changed without notice, something that's standard in most of these "agreements." This is a rare, overdue moment of sanity from the legal system about web agreements, which are universally abusive and one-sided. "How hard is it to send out an e-mail letting people know about [any changes]?" she said. According to the court documents, Douglas signed a contract for service with America Online. The business was then acquired by Talk America, which continued to provide telephone service to AOL's former customers. However, Talk America changed the contract AOL had with its customers and posted those changes on its Web site without notifying the customers first. Link (via /.) posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:23:59 PM permalink \| Other blogs' comments View a recent day: August 20, 2007 \| August 19, 2007 \| August 18, 2007 \| August 17, 2007 \| August 16, 2007 \| August 15, 2007 \| August 14, 2007 \| previous days \| all BB archives by month and year Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: