mcc

This post sounds like a joke https://dads.cool/@hex/112961980923861421

However, it is not https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jl0ekjr0go

Summary: A man signed up for a free 1 month trial of "Disney+". That trial contained an arbitration provision. Disney is now arguing in court that arbitration provision covers, literally, the Disneyworld theme park killing his wife

Laserdisc Dad (@[email protected])

love the implication that "trying a one month free trial" where there's a big asterisk next to free leads to a line that says "this corporation is legally allowed to murder you now"

dads.cool
Aug 14, 2024 at 9:34pmWeb
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
If you went to a cyberpunk author from the early 80s and said "in 40 years murder will become legal because of a contract provision the Disney corporation attached to a television show" the author would go "yes, yes, of course, exactly that scenario is in my book" and then pause and say "wait but you mean like, for real?"
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
"This was supposed to be satire"
Show threadmccAug 15, 2024

Re: Points raised in replies:

- It's true the court has means to avoid ruling if the Disney+ arbitration clause applies, by means such as: the arbitration clause on the Disneyworld ticket; ruling arbitration clauses don't apply to wrongful death; ruling Disney the wrong party to sue (another corp owned the restaurant). Regardless, the argument was made and a precedent *could* be set.

- No, sending murder to arbitration isn't the same thing as making murder legal. But it gets you halfway there.

Show threadrabbitAug 15, 2024
@mcc I'm surprised "binding to arbitration" is legal at all, to be honest. That you can simply invoke “You can't hold us to actual laws, only the laws of a crappier system" seems like a "wishing for more wishes" kind of situation.
Show threadjonathankoren™Aug 15, 2024
@rabbit @mcc It’s very Simpsons.
Show threadTed MielczarekAug 15, 2024
@mcc it would convert murder from a capital offense to a capital expense
Show threadTed MielczarekAug 15, 2024
@mcc (yeah it would be OpEx but then the joke isn't as funny)
Show threadSophie SchmiegAug 15, 2024
@tedmielczarek @mcc would it be OpEx? You pay once and they stay dead forever, sounds like CapEx to me.
Show threadSophie SchmiegAug 15, 2024
@tedmielczarek @mcc of course, selling that deadness off will be harder, but it's definitely not a recurring expense.
Show threadTed MielczarekAug 15, 2024
@sophieschmieg @mcc hmm I'm willing to take your word for it since I am not any sort of accountant nor would I claim any expertise in that area.
Show threadSophie SchmiegAug 15, 2024
@tedmielczarek @mcc oh neither am I, that was a genuine question. And somehow the lawyers don't want to answer it.
Show threadAlaric Snell-PymAug 15, 2024
@mcc damnit, this is the SECOND toot I've read this morning that ends with "halfway there" and I'm still earwormed with "living on a prayer" from the last one
Show threadBrazMogu (i.e. Bruno Guedes)Aug 15, 2024
@kitten_tech @mcc
Oooooh
We're halfway there now
Ooh oh
Living in dystopia
Show threaddemofoxAug 15, 2024
@kitten_tech @mcc and yet, like zeno's paradox, you are still just half way there
Show threadmargotAug 14, 2024
@mcc “sure i was extrapolating based on current events, but you someone must’ve intervened before then, right?
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
@emaytch "…wait, oh god, we didn't RE-ELECT reagan, did we??"
Show threadMike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Aug 14, 2024
@mcc I made the exact same "80s Cyberpunk" comparison about this story to a friend yesterday and it's so damn true. This wasn't the part we wanted! Where's my wardrobe of detachable robot limbs and my job of hacking into megacorps directly with my brain?
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
@mike I have, by this point, replaced far fewer of my body parts with robot parts than I probably would if given the opportunity.
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
@mike Uh, by the way, you could probably get that job hacking into megacorps though, assuming you were willing to (1) use a keyboard and (2) move
Show threadMike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Aug 14, 2024
@mcc yeah number 2 is a deal-breaker.
Show threadmccAug 14, 2024
@mike I'd say I personally feel like I'd find Melbourne too hot, but then again, I'm finding Toronto too cold…
Show threadfraggLe!Aug 14, 2024
@mcc @mike I just got that number two was "move house" not "ugh if I have to get my ass out of this chair the megacorp is just going to have to hack itself".
Show threadMike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Aug 14, 2024

@fwaggle @mcc I think both options are a breach of What We Were Promised, really.

I should be a head in a jar by now.

Show threadnexAug 14, 2024
@mcc There's a *huge* difference between “some lawyer wrote this” and “this is legal”. Terms of use, license agreements, etc. contain loads of bullshit that isn't actually legally enforceable. Which parts are and aren't valid is interesting to law nerds, but the salient point here isn't whether Disney can get away with murder if they tricked some sucker into saying some magic words. (1/2)
Show threadStanley Black-DeckerAug 14, 2024

@nex @mcc You're right, it's up to the courts to affirm or deny the argument

And since judges are so trustworthy these days I'm sure everything will turn out fine

Show threadSally StrangeAug 15, 2024
@pleaseclap @nex @mcc sooo helpful to be reminded that this is fine
Show threadspvAug 14, 2024
@mcc "what part of don't create the torment nexus did you babbling buffoons not fucking understand"
Show threadOblomovAug 14, 2024
@mcc closest thing we can do now is asking a William Gibson, but I don't know how often he checks his Fediverse account. Also, he's seen all this happening in real time so he's probably quite jaded about it
Show threadResunaAug 15, 2024

@oblomov @mcc

Neuromancer was really quite optimistic. They have a thriving space industry and luxury hotels on orbit.

Show threadmccAug 15, 2024
@resuna @oblomov we dont even have hotels anymore
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024

@mcc we're also deeply distressed that the legal defense appears to be that it's the wife's estate, not the husband, who is the plaintiff, and that she wasn't the one who signed up for the now-long-expired free trial

and not, for example, that the argument has no merit due to its obvious absurdity

Show threadmccAug 15, 2024

@ireneista Typically lawyers work every angle available to them simultaneously. But…

Yeah.

Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@mcc yes, absolutely. we're glad there's a solid argument that this bullshit can't work because of a technicality, but we wish there were a solid argument that it can't work because it's evil supervillain shit.
Show threadkouhai, of the health issuesAug 15, 2024
@ireneista and more specifically, there’s also the shrink wrap argument, which i think is roughly “no reasonable person can be expected to believe that clicking this agreement will lead to waiving rights in the context of this specific service […]” etc
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@kouhai oh good. yes. we remember the shrink wrap contract law stuff, thank you very much for pointing out the connection.
Show threaddemizeAug 15, 2024

@mcc @ireneista my reaction to this on discord when I saw it was basically

“this is pretty standard throw everything at the wall strategies, but it sure would be nice if they didn’t throw Bob and Michelle King plotlines at the wall to see if they stuck”

Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@demize @mcc yeah, it's the kind of thing that large companies like to have their lawyers do because they know that responding to it costs money and the opposing party has less of that
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@demize @mcc but even the attempt!
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@demize @mcc the company absolutely deserves public scorn for this
Show threaddemizeAug 15, 2024

@mcc @ireneista I mean I prefer the good faith (well…) interpretation of “we can’t change strategies halfway through the trial, so we have to start off with all of them and let the court whittle them down for us”, similar to how plaintiffs file against anyone who might even be tangentially related to the suit

and then sometimes they go overboard in that and it turns into an episode of The Good Wife (though this one is comically evil enough it might be a The Good Fight episode actually)

Show threadJayAug 15, 2024
@ireneista @demize @mcc The even more evil version of this is in cases where a sick victim is suing, and the lawyers drag out the case until the victim dies.
Show threadIrenes (many)Aug 15, 2024
@WhiteCatTamer @demize @mcc yeah - commonplace and not as newsworthy :(
Show threadErosBlog Bacchus has moved!Aug 15, 2024
@mcc For different reasons I half expect to see any of @GreatDismal or @pluralistic or @bruces posting in this thread any minute now.
Show threadouroAug 15, 2024
@ErosBlog @mcc @GreatDismal @pluralistic @bruces I like that this post implies (accurately?) that the fediverse is patrolled by roving bands of cyberpunk authors.
Show threadErosBlog Bacchus has moved!Aug 15, 2024
@ouro @mcc @GreatDismal @pluralistic @bruces I knew it!
Show threadLeszek CiesielskiAug 15, 2024
@ErosBlog @mcc @GreatDismal @pluralistic @bruces FYI https://mastodon.social/@bruces/112964483485702272
Show threadAndrewAug 15, 2024
@ErosBlog @mcc @GreatDismal @pluralistic @bruces Gibson already wrote “Disneyland With a Death Penalty”
Show threadErosBlog Bacchus has moved!Aug 15, 2024

@cinebox @mcc @GreatDismal @pluralistic @bruces

Haha, Andrew, when I saw "Disneyland With A Death Penalty" I thought "No, wait, I thought that was Singapore."

Then I Googled. LOL! Of course it's from an article by William Gibson in the 4th issue of Wired Magazine, where I would have read it, on paper, at a time when I barely knew who Gibson was. 1993 was a fuckin' LONG time ago! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_with_the_Death_Penalty

Disneyland with the Death Penalty - Wikipedia

Show threadCory DoctorowAug 15, 2024

@ErosBlog @cinebox @mcc @GreatDismal @bruces

When I spoke at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2005, state officials were *still* smarting from that article. The first thing one told me was, "We are NOT Disneyland with the death-penalty!"

I mentioned this to Bill at one point and as I recall, he found it pretty funny.

Show threadErosBlog Bacchus has moved!Aug 15, 2024

@pluralistic @cinebox @mcc @GreatDismal @bruces

It's funny to me how, three decades later, the phrase "Disneyland with a death penalty" still means "Singapore" to me even though I didn't remotely remember why, or that I would have read it in Wired, or that Mr. Gibson wrote it. A good meme is an amazing thing.