Law Students

Changing Terms of Use Agreements?

Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Stop Saying "We Can Amend This Agreement Whenever We Want"!--Harris v. Blockbuster. One possible way to solve this problem, regarding unilateral modifications to a website terms of use contract, which for obvious reasons (as Eric points out) the courts do not like, is as follows (at least for sites that require you to login):

At "Login" force the user to click the I agree button once again and display the modified terms of use agreement. Yeah no one will read it, but at least there has been an "acceptance" that a court might buy. Your users might be a little annoyed but terms don't change that often.

What about people that stay logged in? When the terms have changed expire all sessions after they have been dormant for a certain period of time. The banks do this all the time. There are probably some holes in this strategy, but for certain kinds of popular sites it seems like it might work.

At least it appears to be better than the alternative from a legal perspective (i.e. better than just changing the terms unilaterally and posting a notice that the terms have changed). Obviously, none of this matters until a legal issue arises, but as Eric points out, you do not want a court to disregard otherwise valid and important clauses in the contract.

Full post as published by LawTechTV on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).