Small Print, Big Problem (part I) Imagine you’ve clicked on your computer screen to accept a contract to purchase a good or service—a contract, you only realize later, that’s straight out of Kafka. The widget you’ve bought turns out to be a nightmare. You take to Yelp.com to complain about your experience—but lo, according to the contract you have given up your free speech rights to criticize the product. Let’s also say, in a fit of responsibility, (a bit fantastic, I know) you happened to have printed out this contract before you “signed” it, though you certainly hadn’t read through the thing, which is written, literally, on a “twenty-seventh grade” reading level. Well, you read it now (perhaps with the help of a friend who’s completed the twenty-seventh grade). And you see that there was nothing in the contract limiting your right to free speech at the moment you signed it. That part was added later. Your friend with the twenty-seventh-grade education points to the clause in the contract in which you’ve granted this vendor-from-hell the right to modify the terms of the contract, unilaterally, at any time into the vast limitless future.
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posted by the man of twists and turns
on May 1, 2013 -
36 comments
Up and coming? Looking for exposure? Trying to break into a field? You might consider working on spec to get that name recognition, or even... for
FREE!
But if you are looking for a professional to do something for you, I would strongly recommend you
do not ask for it for free.
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posted by drfu
on Dec 10, 2012 -
84 comments
James Frey (
previously) wants to create the next
Harry Potter or
Twilight sensation. And he's
hiring an army of anonymous starving authors to write it for him under
somewhat unusual terms. Veteran publishing attorney Conrad Rippy said he's never seen anything like it:
It’s an agreement that says, “You’re going to write for me. I’m going to own it. I may or may not give you credit. If there is more than one book in the series, you are on the hook to write those too, for the exact same terms, but I don’t have to use you. In exchange for this, I’m going to pay you 40 percent of some amount you can’t verify — there’s no audit provision — and after the deduction of a whole bunch of expenses.”
posted by scalefree
on Nov 12, 2010 -
178 comments
Get Me a Faith Healer, STAT! Marvin Andrews, a Trinidadian and Tobagoan defender with the Glasgow Rangers, sustained damage to his knee that team doctors say requires surgery to repair. He's decided that God will repair him and says that he will continue practicing and playing. This is on the heels of a recent faith-healed groin injury.
The question is this, if a professional athlete refuses to take the advice of the team's doctors and continues to play with an injury, is his team still responsible for his health and well-being? What about paying out his contract if the injury progresses to the point where he can no longer play?
posted by fenriq
on Mar 29, 2005 -
19 comments
Lockheed Martin beat out Boeing for a
$200 Billion contract to build the new
F-35 fighters jets earlier today. Missile defense, planes that can take off vertically, bombs that fry electronics...military technology is accelerating at a really frightening pace.
posted by catatonic
on Oct 26, 2001 -
36 comments
It seems Metallica has some high class company. The Cleveland Orchestra has halted distribution of their concerts to about 250 U.S. radio stations because of concerns about streaming audio.
The orchestra's contract with its musicians covers radio broadcasting rights of live performances, but not Internet streaming, said Gary Hanson, the orchestra's associate executive director. Does this strike anyone else as strange?
posted by Aaaugh!
on Mar 6, 2001 -
11 comments
