Submission Summary: 0 pending, 21 declined, 4 accepted (25 total, 16.00% accepted)
Submission + - Federal District Court: TOS documents Illusionary (jdsupra.com)
Binestar writes: SUMMARY: On April 15, 2009, a Texas federal district court held that an arbitration provision in Blockbuster's online terms of service was "illusory" and unenforceable because Blockbuster had reserved the right to change the terms of service at any time. Harris v. Blockbuster Inc., No. 3:09-cv-217-M (N.D. Tex. April 15, 2009). If followed by other courts, the Harris decision could have significant implications not only for website operators, but also for any company that wishes to retain the right to modify its standard terms for existing customers.
Essentially, the rules for a TOS change require that a user is given notices of changes and an opportunity to accept or reject them. Websites that have unilateral wording in their Terms of Service have now had those documents struck down in court. This can have far reach consequences among the many many sites that have improperly worded Terms of Service.
The fix is easy though: Just change the wording to say that you will notify your users if the terms change and give them the ability to accept or reject the changes.
Essentially, the rules for a TOS change require that a user is given notices of changes and an opportunity to accept or reject them. Websites that have unilateral wording in their Terms of Service have now had those documents struck down in court. This can have far reach consequences among the many many sites that have improperly worded Terms of Service.
The fix is easy though: Just change the wording to say that you will notify your users if the terms change and give them the ability to accept or reject the changes.
Submission + - Microsoft released IE8 as Critical Update for XP (msdn.com)
Binestar writes: If you've checked windows update today you'll have noticed that IE8 is now listed as a critical update. For those not interested in upgrading to IE8 at this time, the MSDN released information back in January on how to keep IE8 off your machine.
Submission + - Time Warner shelves plans for tiered pricing (whec.com)
Submission + - Google's information on DMCA takedown abuse (pcworld.co.nz)
Binestar writes: In a PC World article, they point out that Google has submitted a brief to New Zealand about it's proposed copyright law (section 92A). "In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims."
