The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a web “contract” — that is, the ridiculous “terms of service” that you agree to just by looking at a web-page — can’t be changed without notice, something that’s standard in most of these “agreements.”
This is a rare, overdue moment of sanity from the legal system about web agreements, which are universally abusive and one-sided.
“How hard is it to send out an e-mail letting people know about [any changes]?” she said.
According to the court documents, Douglas signed a contract for service with America Online. The business was then acquired by Talk America, which continued to provide telephone service to AOL’s former customers. However, Talk America changed the contract AOL had with its customers and posted those changes on its Web site without notifying the customers first.
(via /.)