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On August 02 2012 08:55 Craton wrote: I doubt this clause is even legally enforceable.
We did this dance when origin did the same thing. Yes, you can legally enforce stopping class action lawsuits with a ToS. Its not stopping you from suing them, but its stopping you from suing them in a spesific way that benefits no one including yourself.
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As long as i can continue to play my games, whatevah
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On August 02 2012 08:32 motbob wrote: I wonder how much consumers actually benefit from class action lawsuits. From what I've seen, payouts are always rather meager. Would love to see the breakdown of payouts (amount paid by the corporation / amount paid to lawyers / amount paid in legal fees / amount paid out to consumers) The purpose of a class action suit, even with a tiny per-plaintiff payout, is to police corporations without waiting for the government/regulator to step in and do it for you.
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On August 02 2012 09:01 Excludos wrote:Show nested quote +On August 02 2012 08:55 Craton wrote: I doubt this clause is even legally enforceable. We did this dance when origin did the same thing. Yes, you can legally enforce stopping class action lawsuits with a ToS. Its not stopping you from suing them, but its stopping you from suing them in a spesific way that benefits no one including yourself. O, what case was this?
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On August 02 2012 09:05 Sub40APM wrote:Show nested quote +On August 02 2012 09:01 Excludos wrote:On August 02 2012 08:55 Craton wrote: I doubt this clause is even legally enforceable. We did this dance when origin did the same thing. Yes, you can legally enforce stopping class action lawsuits with a ToS. Its not stopping you from suing them, but its stopping you from suing them in a spesific way that benefits no one including yourself. O, what case was this?
Origin had the same thing in their ToS when their service went live, and there was just as much outrage about it because people are equally unlearned about the subject as they are now. Most of the outrage comes from people who doesn't even know what a class action lawsuit is.
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I'm actually glad that they made this change. On the one hand, it limits the consumer's rights by preventing them from filing a class action lawsuit (duh). However, think of all the times where companies you have used lose these lawsuits: did you see any of the money? Maybe, but we all know the lawyers saw a lot more. This will make it so that Valve doesn't have to spend as much money fighting pointless lawsuits, allowing them to spend more money on actually making games and updating their Steam service. That's something that I can actually benefit from.
Class action lawsuits aren't even used for their actual purpose anymore, anyway. They are meant to extract money from something on behalf of multiple people within one lawsuit, but they are really popular these days because the lawyers that execute them get to keep all of the leftover money, while many consumers, who are the people that the lawsuit is being made for in the first place, walk away penniless.
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Although it is true that class action lawsuits are many times non-beneficial to all parties involved, it still should be available to the consumers to, at the very least, raise awareness of a problem, especially if the potential defendant won't accept a reasonable settlement out of court.
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This can't be legally enforced as everyone else said, but I, despite not voting the poll cuz I'm lazy, think this is a good thing. A lot of people bring "class action" lawsuites as lawyers saying that these video games are corrupting the youth somehow, that won't stop them, but it may prevent some of those cases popping up to harrass and spend video game makers money.
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On August 02 2012 09:09 Excludos wrote:Show nested quote +On August 02 2012 09:05 Sub40APM wrote:On August 02 2012 09:01 Excludos wrote:On August 02 2012 08:55 Craton wrote: I doubt this clause is even legally enforceable. We did this dance when origin did the same thing. Yes, you can legally enforce stopping class action lawsuits with a ToS. Its not stopping you from suing them, but its stopping you from suing them in a spesific way that benefits no one including yourself. O, what case was this? Origin had the same thing in their ToS when their service went live, and there was just as much outrage about it because people are equally unlearned about the subject as they are now. Most of the outrage comes from people who doesn't even know what a class action lawsuit is. Oh, of course, people think this is bad just because they don't understand it, not because it's bad. Search me. I had just assumed that people agreed with Steam's ToS because they didn't understand it, not because they agree. But you've convinced me. Thanks for that compelling argument.
My heart goes out to all the victimized corporations that are forced to defend themselves when they act irresponsibly towards thousands of customers at once.
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As much as I think lawsuits are abused by people looking to get rich at the expense of someone else, what this is ultimately doing is stomping on consumer rights.
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On August 02 2012 08:32 motbob wrote: I wonder how much consumers actually benefit from class action lawsuits. From what I've seen, payouts are always rather meager. Would love to see the breakdown of payouts (amount paid by the corporation / amount paid to lawyers / amount paid in legal fees / amount paid out to consumers)
That would be interesting but class action lawsuits also prevent future harm in some cases. The continuing use of whatever practice the lawsuit is over can hurt future consumers, so its not super cut and dry through payouts for cases.
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In France, you could make someone give up his right to go to court over a particular matter, that's often used in labor law or civil law. That's called a transaction. However, to be valid, that transaction needs to give both party an advantage : one party gains the security of not being sued (that's her advantage), and most of the times, the other party gains money.
Other than that mechanism, I don't know of any legal act that can make you lose your right to sue, in french law at least.
This clause has no effect, imo.
Edit : and there are so many clauses like that... "this company will not be responsible for blablabla"... lol. Writing that down does not grant magical immunity.
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Would anyone care to share with me some of the class action lawsuits that have been pursued against gaming companies? I don't know much about them besides what I just wiki'd .. that they are lawsuits representing many people at once (at least that is what i took from my quick perusal of the wiki entry)
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In which countries is this actually enforceable?
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Graduate solicitor here. Nothing contained here is advice, or should be taken as advice. It's alarming how many people believe in misconceptions regarding contract law.
On August 02 2012 08:23 Integra wrote: Legal rights being made illegal through a digital contract. I think you actually could sue valve for this.
No. No you can't. You cannot sue someone for having a contract with unenforceable terms.
On August 02 2012 07:33 laegoose wrote: Imagine people do class action lawsuit and judge says "lol you've selected a checkbox on the internetz no lawsuits plzkthx". Does it work like that?
Yes.
On August 02 2012 08:35 Thenerf wrote: Terms of Service is not a legally binding contract. Also a judge can ignore a legally binding contract.
This is pretty obvious and the courts do notice these tactics and ignore them.
... No. Terms of Service can be legally binding depending on the manner in which they are presented and accepted.
On August 02 2012 08:04 gubbstrut wrote: Agree to terms online by checking a box is about as binding as signing a document without having to show ID, theirs no proof its something you did.
... Signing a document without having to show ID is binding. Proof is another matter altogether.
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Considering how many games I have on steam, I could get full market value in refunds totally around 800$ if I went into arbitration. And the bad press for steam would be end of them.
Oh and fuck the supreme court, can't get any rulings right.
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Yea, Valve is really pushing for gamers these days...
Anyways, not much choice in the matter. Could be worse.
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Is this even legal to do? We all paid money for these games. How can they lock us out if we refuse to give up our right to sue? I paid a ton of money for all my collective steam games. Is it legal to prevent me from accessing them until I agree to give up my right to participate in a class action lawsuit?
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I'm pretty sure that EA does the same thing in the Origin ToS. That said, I don't agree with it but doubt it will ever be a major issue.
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