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Robolawyer to Handle Clickwraps?

Posted by michael on from the fatally-flawed-ideas dept.

adelord writes "Recently Wired published an essay by Mark D. Rasch describing the need for a 'browser-based automaton that could be adjusted to match your tolerance for legal mumbo jumbo' to help the user navigate the torrent of user agreements most of us click through without reading. Is this a job for Google Labs, and if not, who else would write the software for it? Do you think it is a good idea? While the legal exposure from writing software that partially fills the role of a lawyer could be enormous, I sure that it would have an ironclad user agreement that I would simply click through in my excitement to use it."

3 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Do you think it is a good idea? by darth_MALL · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmmmm. If they end up with a product that works as hit-and-miss as Babelfish, wouldn't that jeopordize the correct translation of legalese? Are you still bound to the original mumbo-jumbo if you only understood a flawed translation? Doesn't seem feasable. Why not just dumb down the actual legal language?

  2. Simpler solution by LastToKnow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd prefer it if we just required companies to add summaries to their legal aggreements. Like a little bit at the top that says thing like

    * You're not allowed to re-sell this software
    * We can use our update feature to install whatever we want on your computer
    * Your soul belongs to us

    Followed by all the legal mumbo jumbo required to make it all hold up in a court.

  3. The obvious question? by scribblej · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My first thought is, if you have a peice of software "signing" these EULAs for you -- who's bound by the "contract?"