EA Changes Origin Terms of Services, Forbids Class Action Lawsuits
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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What bullshit. Arbitration is supposed to be a part of contract law, an informed agreement between two parties, usually large companies, to settle disputes, not something to hammer your unsuspecting customers with. Considering the expense, it effectively lets companies do whatever the hell they want, further eroding civil rights, not that the Supreme Court seems to care about a little thing like that.
That's where being a discerning consumer comes into play. That's why you avoid first generation hardware. Hell, Apple has made a killing off having defective hardware that dies rather quickly. I've met nary a person that has an iPod that has lasted more than 2 years.BoredRolePlayer said:
And this one of those things where you can either cover your ass or not. And they're choosing to cover their ass instead of facing a ton of legal fees for pretty much no reason.
I mean, even Steam has a liability clause in their ToS that says they aren't liable for any damage that may be done due to Steam or anything related to Steam. Same basic principle, different wording.
Hah I see what you did there.Ser Imp said:
When I was reading the headlines, "EA Changes Origin Terms of Services" I first thought they were going to get rid of the part where it says it can spy on your computer. But noooo, I was wrong.
The Supreme Court has always favoured Corporate Interest over the rights of the common man. What, did you think they voted against California's anti-games bill because of consumer rights?theblackmonk90 said:
Instead they made it so you can't take them to court for it (which you have every right to do on the grounds of INVASION OF PRIVACY!) so if you complain they can't be made to do anything. Oh well. If there's one thing we've learned from this it's that EA's image actually can get worse. Congratu-funking-lations EA, you have actually gone PAST rock bottom. Give yourselves a pat on the back, preferably with the sharpest object you can find.aprildog18 said:
This isnt about whether it works or not. its about the fact that by agreeing to sonys ToS ur giving up some of your rights.Fuselage said:
So whining about Origin doing the same thing and bowing to never use it is quite hypocritical if ur still using PSN
Its sometimes hard to believe that some people feel so strongly about things like this they stop using service's like origin and psn. I really don't give a crap unless they directly hinder me. Personally I love origin, however, that's mainly due to me having a employees discount 
Hooray for living in the EU. But seriously, dislike Activision though I do, EA are just beginning to remind me of why we all disliked them so much. Anyone remember the uproar over Spore's DRM? And their ridiculous trash talk about CoD (I enjoy MW, not so sure about online MW2, can't be bothered with 3) has happened before-Medal of honour was talked up repeatedly as CoD killer. I love BF2, I desperately want BF3 for PC, and then you hear about crap like this. Oh, and the EU common agricultural policy is appalling, protectionist, and damages african markets.
That's funny cause my iPod is so old the battery can't hold a charge for more then 2 and a half hours (it's more then 4 years old, I just know how to take care of my tech). And yeah steam my have that clause but it doesn't sayFrostbite3789 said:
I don't see anything in what you said about how we waive our rights with Value of a class action lawsuit. What you stated sounds like this
"We are not liable for any damaged done to your machine" and if you run homebrew you see that warning a lot. But it wouldn't protect valve if they lost all their customers credit card information now would it? At least not how you worded it, cause the EA one pretty much says they can screw up and that's that.
I think we're pretty much at a stalemate as to what we think the severity of this is.BoredRolePlayer said:
One more thing I will say, is that all the people who thought the PSN fiasco was hilarious and the hackers were great fun. Now that we're beginning to see affects from that reach out into other parts of the industry that aren't Sony, it's going to be a hell of a lot less hilarious.
Another one to add to the pile of "Reasons for it being unlikely I'll get Battlefield 3." Even though I live in the EU this is a massive dick move.
That's even in spite of the rest of the Origin EULA which basically states "EA reserves the right to know every past, present and future facet of your existence and sell said information to the highest bidder to do with whatever the fuck they like."
INB4 the usual smug "you say that but you'll still buy the game" tedium, I appreciate this kind of thing gets said a lot on the build-up to releases if the developer/publisher decides to be a bellend. However, in this case I am genuinely considering not buying because despite how good a game BF3 is likely to be the principles of this matter are somewhat superior to the urge to play yet another FPS, no matter how pretty it looks.
In conclusion: EA, piss off and take your fuck-ton of petty, malicious smallprint with you.
That's even in spite of the rest of the Origin EULA which basically states "EA reserves the right to know every past, present and future facet of your existence and sell said information to the highest bidder to do with whatever the fuck they like."
INB4 the usual smug "you say that but you'll still buy the game" tedium, I appreciate this kind of thing gets said a lot on the build-up to releases if the developer/publisher decides to be a bellend. However, in this case I am genuinely considering not buying because despite how good a game BF3 is likely to be the principles of this matter are somewhat superior to the urge to play yet another FPS, no matter how pretty it looks.
In conclusion: EA, piss off and take your fuck-ton of petty, malicious smallprint with you.
I agree with you that the PSN thing was a mess and NO ONE should have cheered on hackers for that. Because I support homebrew and modding and we do not do that crap, it just put us in a bad spot. I can't say homebrew and hacks aren't evil cause I myself can point to so many hacks and homebrew that is just plain wrong (Can't even play Phantasy Star Portable 2 without the fear of a hacker corrupting a save, or play Animal Crossing on the DS without someone corrupting my town). I feel I always have to qualify my statement of "I owned a modded psp/DS" with a photo of my danged collection of 40+ PSP games and 80+ DS games without being called a pirate. It is screwed up.Frostbite3789 said:
From what I understand, you can only ever waive your right to legal redress in civil matters. If EA actually does something *criminal*, you can still take them to court even if you agree to this document, because you can't waive their responsibility for criminal acts. You can, however, grant them a waiver of responsibility for non-criminal things like, say, overcharging you accidentally, or showing you advertisements you deem "offensive" (which you can sue for nowadays).
Frankly, in these litigious times, any company *not* covering as much of their ass as the law allows is probably being negligent.
Frankly, in these litigious times, any company *not* covering as much of their ass as the law allows is probably being negligent.
In case anyone missed it. A Class action lawsuit is a lawsuit used to represent a group of people apart from an individual, therefore, this means EA cannot be subject to a class action lawsuit by an individual claiming to represent other individuals effected in the same way. THIS HOWEVER does not mean you cannot sue them as an individual. Either somewhere along the line we all forgot to read or just didn't give a fuck and saw 'cannot sue' and flipped a shit about it.
YOU CAN STILL SUE EA as an individual case. Also, they CANNOT SUE YOU in a class action lawsuit either. So before you say. "MY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK" Remember that our founding fathers weren't idiots and made a number of ways to ram sticks up the butts of the sticks up ours. Now before you decide to fling the poop my way, I dont like the fact That EA is setting a bad legal precedent and its likely there will be even greater stinks to come over far more than just EA's legal practice. And YES EA has been a ***** for a long time but lets get down to brass tacks, WHAT ON THIS GREEN EARTH would a "class" want to sue EA for? You haven't signed away your 7th amendment by the way if you can still sue individually. jus' sayin'
YOU CAN STILL SUE EA as an individual case. Also, they CANNOT SUE YOU in a class action lawsuit either. So before you say. "MY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ATTACK" Remember that our founding fathers weren't idiots and made a number of ways to ram sticks up the butts of the sticks up ours. Now before you decide to fling the poop my way, I dont like the fact That EA is setting a bad legal precedent and its likely there will be even greater stinks to come over far more than just EA's legal practice. And YES EA has been a ***** for a long time but lets get down to brass tacks, WHAT ON THIS GREEN EARTH would a "class" want to sue EA for? You haven't signed away your 7th amendment by the way if you can still sue individually. jus' sayin'
Everything about Origin disgusts me. I'll be astounded to find out anyone actually uses this thing.
I personally think that's a great idea. People get up in arms about companies not allowing you to sue them but you know what? frivolous bullS@#t lawsuits are things that every business owner fears.
Why? Because we're not Nostradamus, we can't predict all the possible customer interactions someone could have with the company. Most companies are very happy to compensate customers for their legitimate screw ups. However when some lady sues McDonalds for 2 million bucks because her coffee was too hot and she burned herself. Well that's just plain ridiculous! Or another one is when people sign up for high risk activities and then get injured and sue the outfitter or company that runs the activity.
Businesses are constantly in fear of being sued into bankruptcy by some legal loophole in a frivolous lawsuit. People wonder why healthcare costs are so expensive, well that's one of the reasons! Hospitals and Doctors are constantly being sued for supposed Malpractice. While some cases are legitimate. Many are simply honest mistakes or negative outcomes from high risk operations. There is no reason why disagreements can't be resolved more directly via arbitration.
Anyway I say good for EA for putting that in there. We live in a sue happy society and I for one am glad that there is more protection for businesses against frivolous lawsuits.
Why? Because we're not Nostradamus, we can't predict all the possible customer interactions someone could have with the company. Most companies are very happy to compensate customers for their legitimate screw ups. However when some lady sues McDonalds for 2 million bucks because her coffee was too hot and she burned herself. Well that's just plain ridiculous! Or another one is when people sign up for high risk activities and then get injured and sue the outfitter or company that runs the activity.
Businesses are constantly in fear of being sued into bankruptcy by some legal loophole in a frivolous lawsuit. People wonder why healthcare costs are so expensive, well that's one of the reasons! Hospitals and Doctors are constantly being sued for supposed Malpractice. While some cases are legitimate. Many are simply honest mistakes or negative outcomes from high risk operations. There is no reason why disagreements can't be resolved more directly via arbitration.
Anyway I say good for EA for putting that in there. We live in a sue happy society and I for one am glad that there is more protection for businesses against frivolous lawsuits.