mccAug 14, 2024

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
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 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 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)
@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
Aug 15, 2024 at 2:17amWeb
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 :(