21309
submission
hawridger writes:
The Smallprint Project, created by a USC graduate student (communications), Andy Sternberg, edeavors to bring the worst contracts of adhesions (EULAs) to public light for an academic project.
The purpose of this project is to document experiences -- both good and bad -- presented by the millions of EULAs (End User Licensing Agreements) as they are both designed and encountered, knowingly or otherwise. This project will only last 8 weeks or so as an academic endeavor, however, this site is designed with the hopes of fostering discussion, suggestion, exposition and implementation of EULAs (electronic and otherwise) in an effort to help define, describe and mediate the nature of agreements in the digital age.
This idea is very interesting. One of the first entries includes an excerpt from Amazon Unbox:
Section 9(c): "If Amazon changes any part of the Service or modifies license terms... you acknowledge that you may not be able to access, view, or use Digital Content in the same manner as prior to such changes, and you agree that Amazon shall have no liability to you in such case."
If you've got a nasty EULA, then you can submit it via a form on the site.
Keep it up Andy. I look forward to reading your final results on the Small Print Project when it's complete.
16451
submission
hawridger writes:
From the Yahoo article:
Google Inc. snapped up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion Monday in deal that catapults the Internet search leader to a leading role in the online video revolution. The all-stock acquisition unites one of the Internet's marquee companies with one of its rapidly rising stars.
The price makes YouTube, a still-unprofitable startup, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history.
Read more at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061009/ap_on_bi_ge/go ogle_youtube_7.
15295
submission
hawridger writes:
A Cnet article reports that the recently passed legislation banning online gambling in the US may, in fact, fuel crime. From the Article:
A bill to ban online gambling in the United States was drafted haphazardly and risks driving millions of gamblers underground onto unregulated Web sites, a former U.S. state attorney general said on Thursday.
John J. Farmer, former New Jersey attorney general, said relatively few of those who voted in favor of the bill had read it properly and that it was badly formulated.
"It was like watching sausage getting made," he told the e-comlaw Online Gambling conference in London.
. . . .
"Wherever there is demand there is supply," he said. "There are 10 million Americans that play online and they're not going to go away."
Farmer said he thought it unlikely the ban on online gambling would stand the test of time. "I'd be surprised if this law is still in the books in three or four years time," he said. "But then again, I'm surprised that it exists at all."
