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EA's New User Agreement Bans Lawsuits
An anonymous reader writes with this snippet: "Electronic Arts has updated its Terms of Service Agreement for the Origin platform. Following Sony's steps, and taking it even further, EA has added a new clause that prevents users from suing them in both class action and jury trial forms."
The whole credit card incident with Sony has already slipped your memory? Fraud of many sorts. Destruction of your personal property, both physical and electronic.
There are plenty of reasons.
If there weren't, why would they bother with this?
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Quote from the EULA:
This provision applies to all consumers to the fullest extent allowable by law, but expressly excludes residents of Quebec, Russia, Switzerland and the Member States of the European Union.
Hence Europeans can feel safe.
While I'd like to see the class action laws amended, this doesn't mean there is no recourse. A little organization and a mass of suits in small claims court would prove quite expensive for them. Hmmmm, I just got a web site idea :)
As an aside, I think that class action suits are fundamentally flawed in their current form. The settlements are generally a joke for the class, with the lawyers picking up most of the benefit. Frankly, the companies benefit from it more than they are hurt by it in it's current form.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Everyone is speaking of the Sony server hacks but the first thing that came to my mind was when Sony installed a rootkit on your PC with their music CD's a few years back. I can see EA doing all sorts of things along these lines or at least trying to.
the supreme court said you can sue if you have suffered serious damages even if the contract said arbitration
So now corporations across the country can steal small sums from millions of people, and none of them can sue because they individually haven't suffered serious damages, and can no longer pool their resources as a class.
What it boils down to is that the Superman III/Office Space scam is de facto legal now. If you're a major corporation, that is.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
In the UK you could easily spend £50 on one night out, whereas a game costing the same would provide several days' pleasure at least without the hangover or any other hassles.
If your hangover doesn't last several days, it wasn't much of a night out.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/att-mobility-v-concepcion/
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
My likelihood of buying a Sony product is pretty much zero. I sold their electronics for a few years and overall it was overrated crap. I have a vague interest in a couple of their MMO's, but I'm just not going to bother with them. I'll never own a Play Station because of structural difficulties of my right hand making console game controls painful to use. Using your food analogy, unless you buy 100% organic and never eat in restaurants, you're supporting Monsanto at some level, and they are pretty high up on the evil food pyramid along with ADM.
A certain amount of evil in your life is unavoidable if you live a modern lifestyle. Sony/EA aren't going to miss my dollars because they weren't going to get them in the first place, my post was meant as humor. And you're absolutely right, writing to my congresscritter would be much more effective, it's something that I really should do on a more regular basis. I actually got to insult one of my congresscritters to his face, that was a very fun day at work!
When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
At some point, someone will challenge the legality of this practice of blocking legal recourse.
It has been challenged, many times. Congress even weighed in with the Federal Arbitration Act -- passed in 1925, don't think this is a new thing by any means -- and specifically stated that arbitration clauses are legal and enforceable. Courts have found that there are some cases in which they aren't, for example if the arbitrator can be shown to be biased. But even there, the Supreme Court found in 1967 that you basically have to try arbitration first before you can appeal to the court system.
Binding arbitration clauses in contracts are settled law and new challenges aren't likely to change that. In fact, they're not likely to survive summary judgment. I'm less sure about binding arbitration for class action suits; I think it could be argued that class action provides a form of remedy which isn't available through arbitration and therefore cannot be replaced by it.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
But if you really think it's so onerous, then you can simply not agree to the EULA. It's not like you'll die if you don't play the latest Madden release.
This has been a corporate stealth agenda in the US since the late 1980s.
Don't believe me?
What's your immediate reaction to the following phrases:
McDonalds coffee lawsuit
Jackpot justice
Frivolous lawsuit
Tort reform
No need to reply, just hold the thought.
Now go to http://hotcoffeethemovie.com/ and watch the trailer (if you have HBO watch the full film there, or rent the DVD after November).
Now consider the sheer number of companies that have, or changed, EULAs, warranties, or other consumer contracts to preclude anything other than "binding arbitration".
Guess who pays for the "arbitrators"?
The company whose product or service you, the consumer, have had a problem with.
Since said arbitrators are paid for the company, how many adverse rulings do you think you're going to see against the company?
EA is just following suit of AT&T, Verizon, FINRA, auto dealers, and many others looking to minimize their "attack threshold", which is a good thing, right?
PS: For extra credit research and discuss ALEC, and enjoy your weekend.
Some days it's just not worth
chewing through my restraints.
Everyone go to the local retailer and buy an EA game. Open it (don't be gentle with the packaging) begin to install it. When the EULA comes up stop the process return the store and tell them that the EULA is unacceptable and you want your money back. If they don't take it back the the EULA is not a valid contract, if they have to take back hundreds or thousands of partly used games then it'll cost them a fortune.
-- QED