[Air-L] Terms of Service not legally binding?

[Rian Wanstreet]

Of interest: Justice Roberts admitting he doesn't read ToS:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/02145811519/supreme-court-chief-justice-admits-he-doesn-t-read-online-eulas-or-other-fine-print.shtml

On Sat, Apr 7, 2018 at 8:57 AM, Lovaas,Steven <Steven.Lovaas at colostate.edu>
wrote:

> Charles,
>
> Your questions often teach me, because I’m interested enough to go
> sleuthing. So I assume you’re aware of most of these resources; I include
> them as breadcrumbs for the interested.
>
> The EFF white paper (https://www.eff.org/wp/clicks-bind-ways-users-agree-
> online-terms-service) hasn’t been updated in almost a decade, though they
> have a nice summary of “unconscionability” in online contacts as of 2011 (
> https://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Contracts:_Click_Wrap_Licenses). The
> American Bar Association has a paper from 2015 (
> https://www.americanbar.org/publications/communications_
> lawyer/2015/january/click_here.html) going into some nice detail of
> browsewrap vs clickwrap, citing court decisions. Key cases are reviewed
> here as late as 2016: https://www.google.com/amp/s/
> termsfeed.com/blog/3-key-legal-cases-on-click-wrap/amp/
>
> This 2016 blog post is the closest I’ve found to an answer to your
> question:
> https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2016/08/anarchy-has-
> ensued-in-courts-handling-of-online-contract-formation-round-up-post.htm
>
> Best of luck!
> Steve Lovaas
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Apr 7, 2018, at 12:52 AM, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c
> .m.ess at media.uio.no>> wrote:
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> With apologies for spamming the lists - on behalf of both a student
> project and our development of further refinements in internet research
> ethics I'd like to ask the following.
>
> I've heard somewhere recently that a U.S. court has ruled that Terms of
> Service are not necessarily legally binding.
> If anyone can forward more exact details of the ruling, I'd be very
> grateful indeed.
>
> Why? There is considerable discussion regarding the creation of fake
> profiles as part of research into social media, algorithms, etc.  I have
> the impression that this has become common practice, and this ruling may
> give some direct and/or indirect support to arguments for such a practice.
> (With important caveats, generally a good thing in my view, FWIW.)
>
> At the same time, however, Norwegian law and thereby research ethics, as a
> start, tend to be considerably more strict than the U.S. (and even, in some
> instances, the E.U.).  I would like to figure out the differences and
> resulting nuances in the implications for research ethics - both for the
> sake of the general example and for an MA student project that I have the
> pleasure of supervising.
>
> Many thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions.
>
> All best,
> - charles ess
>
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
>
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/
> listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/
> listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>



-- 
Rian Wanstreet
PhD Student, Teaching Assistant
Department of Communication, University of Washington
Office: Communications Bldg., 340-T