Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Ha, I love the pure the irony of that title. But really, the reality is that as crude as it is, South Park always seems to tackle important issues, albeit in an unorthodox way.
So anyways, Season 15, episode 1 "The Human Centipad" is the episode I watched. Without giving to much plot away, Kyle has an Ipad, and gets into ridiculous trouble with Apple because he didn't read the ToS when he agreed to it, and now is going to be subjected to ridiculous medical experiments because they put it in their ToS during an update and he agreed to it.
So it makes me wonder, could companies put something especially bad into their ToS, screw a bunch of people, and then hide behind the "well they agreed to it" argument? I'm not talking about medical experiments, but what if you agreed they could use your credit card or bank account as they saw fit including emptying them? The reality is, who really reads the walls of text of a ToS?
Does that make us accountable? Legally yes, but is it moral to expect that of people? How many people can even understand half of the legal terms they use in them anyways? Where should the line between user and corporate accountability?
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
I came across an article a while back - and it listed a few different top 10 T&C categories:
Like strange T&C, Bad T&C, funny T&C, etc.
There's certainly some catches in them - and some humour in some as well.. There was one that actually had a way of claiming a cash prize hidden deep within and it apparently took a couple years before someone ever bothered claiming the prize.
At any rate, facebook et al, have some pretty nasty T&C in regards to IP.
And there is a tonne of computer software that includes spyware, adware, etc in T&C.
Joined: May '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 1372
It probably varies from country to country but here in the UK a contract can be declared null and void if it's terms are deemed to be unfair by a court.
Joined: Jan '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 1204
Stop sitting on the fence about south park saying your title is ironic. It's not, south park is genius in a retarded fashion. But there is a thin line between genius and idiocy so it's kind of fitting that they do it in that way. Plus the characters are kids thats another reason.
I don't know whether they could get away with what your saying if you had the money to get an amazing lawyer who could win the case but there is no morals in business. Just profits. Its all about the benjaminzzzzz
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Eddie Izzard did a whole routine on terms and conditions and apple updates and how no one ever reads them. It's really funny. What's really odd is that I just looked it up on youtube and after I typed Eddie Izzard it recommended "Eddie Izzard terms and conditions" as a search. How the hell did it know that was what I was going for? Weird.
Haven't seen that south park episode but it sounds funny. They do make a lot of good points in that cartoon.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by awood88: How the hell did it know that was what I was going for? Weird.
Possibly a coincidence - however, most people would probably recognise that more and more searches are able to bring up your desired result closer to the top a lot more often.. It's all about context - and when you're using google products (Youtube, Gmail, Google search, Google Chrome) it gets frighteningly good; Google are the masters of context-specific searches, everything you do is essentially tracked and then used as parameters for your next actions/searches.. Obviously targeted advertising is one of the main reasons for this to exist - however, it also goes a long way in bringing your a more tailored/personalised internet experience.
