View Single Post
Old 10-01-2007, 12:44 PM   #21 (permalink)
DumberThanPaint
Upright
 
DumberThanPaint's Avatar
 
So we've got the authoritarians who scream loudly that corporations have every right whatsoever because they are only doing what an ordinary person would do. Of course, they blithely ignore the fact that a) this isn't a person we're dealing with and b) contract law doesn't quite work that way.

Then we've got the libertarians who believe anything that chips away at their precious liberties is unconstitutional. Of course, this matter does not involve State action nor does it involve any of the 13th amendment violations that can nail private citizens.

What we've got here is a contract issue plain and simple. In a day to day contract, say I hire a contractor to paint my rooms. He does a shitty job on one of them. I say directly in his face or make a web page saying "contractor did a shitty job painting my room." Can he refuse to perform? Sure, but then he's in breach of contract.

So we've got a slick, multibillion dollar corporation that's wised up to the fact people like to complain about crappy service. So they stick a clause into the contract, called an "adhesion contract", because by its very nature its terms are not bargained for. You sign it or reject it, no ifs ands or buts. So I post a website "ATTreallysucks.com" and they cancel my service. Are they in breach too? Dunno. But the judge is going to look very carefully at that clause and determine (using special scrutiny) whether the term would be outside of the reasonable expectations of the purchaser.
DumberThanPaint is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73