Ebay jumping on the binding arbitration bandwagon

[Zing]

I'm no lawyer, but my understanding of a lot of contracts is that they can put something in there, but it doesn't make it legal. If they went and put a "Ebay has the right to murder you" clause in there, it wouldn't actually give them the right to murder you.

Any part of a contract involving a criminal act is inherently void.

To further clarify, anything legally contractable is, by definition, legal. Contracts don't make anything legal.

Yessir, letting companies practically write their own laws sure is a good idea.

Hyperbole much? Please explain how a voluntary agreement between two parties is equivalent to writing legislation.

[DinnerX]

Hyperbole much? Please explain how a voluntary agreement between two parties is equivalent to writing legislation.

It seems like TOS and such are getting out of hand and very little is done by the government to protect the consumer. Short of rejecting the modern life, you can't avoid TOS entirely. Most of the US for example is bound by the license or terms for adobe flash, Microsoft windows, and Facebook.

If these gradually encroaching terms are enforced by the government we may find ourselves in a very bad situation. It is conceivable, for example, that resale rights could be removed from US citizens if everything sold in the US included an agreement that forbid it. Such a change would have to be gradual of course, but it isn't out of the question. Some software EULAs already forbid resale. As I understand it, such a term was viewed as valid by the court in Vernor v. Autodesk.

The EU has put a stop to some of this in Europe, but no such luck in America.