[Infowarrior] - Court rejects ToS claim of anytime modifications

[Richard Forno]

This could be interesting!    --rf

Court Rejects Online Terms Of Service That Reserve The Right To Change  
At Any Time
from the wow dept

If you look at many online terms of service, they reserve the right to  
change the terms at any time. Some force you to re-agree to the terms  
-- but others don't. In the past, courts have ruled that if someone  
didn't agree to the changed terms, the new terms could be found to be  
unenforceable, but a recent decision has gone much further,  
effectively saying that the entire terms of service are void if they  
claim they can be changed at any time. Sent in by Blake, the ruling  
said that Blockbuster's online terms of service were "illusory" and  
unenforceable because it included a clause saying it could change the  
terms at any time. So, even though the term it was trying to enforce  
was in the terms that the person agreed to, the court found the entire  
terms unenforceable. This is quite a ruling that could have a pretty  
major impact on any online service that has terms that insist they can  
change at any time. While it's just a district court ruling and may be  
reversed on appeal, it's something anyone running an online service  
should pay attention to.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20090508/0212134792.shtml