LOL Enjoying the slippery slope everyone?
Pretty soon class actions will vanish and with it will be the ability to even mildly annoy megacorps.
Author: Innomen
Writer. Philosopher. Nerd. If you want to know more, contact me.
I don't know where it's getting that photo.
OMFG! Now eBay is trying it!
Updated provisions governing how disputes between eBay and eBay users are resolved.
- The User Agreement contains an Agreement to Arbitrate, which will, with limited exception, require you and eBay to submit claims to binding and final arbitration, unless you opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate by November 9, 2012. Unless you opt-out: (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against eBay on an individual basis, not as part of any class or representative action or proceeding and (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis.
I hate this country so much. Why not just make it illegal to have rights in opposition to corporate profits in any way? I mean Why not just let which ever companies are patent all our genes license us to the corporations as slave labor directly? That’s what they seem to want and no one seems to care.
On the surface opt out would seem to be an option but surprise surprise check this shit out…
If you choose not to accept the new terms, visit this help page for further direction.
That “help page” link sends me here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/closing-account.html
So apparently by “opt out” they mean “close your account.”
Searching for “opt out” in support yields nothing.
http://ocs.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CustomerSupport&action=0&searchstring=opt+out
I don’t know why this has me so upset, I mean its not like the legal system applies in favor of me anyway. Everyone knows that the law only applies in your favor if you can afford a lawyer. This really changes nothing.
Why isn’t the ACLU all over this? You’d think they would care about major companies forcing customer to sign away a civil right.
I guess they got tired of buying congressmen to get new rules in their favor, now they’ll just make them up as they go and enforce them themselves.
Yay for a budding Johnny Mnemonic dystopia. Welcome to the United States Corporations of America. Scanning dyslexia prostheses implant…
Related:
If not now, when?
Updated slightly: 2013-10-17 1051 PM
I ask this question to illustrate the point that there is a point when the unthinkable must become thinkable. I ask this question because it’s a good idea to anticipate this sort of thing.
We are at the worst point for civil liberties the history of the west has ever seen. To get qualitatively worse from here we’d have to break out (more of) the East German or North Korean tool box.
I mean Jesus, look around. At what point (before it’s too late of course) if not now will it be justified to openly speak about, if not overtly plan for, our last resort?
Democracy is clearly dying, if not long dead.
That isn’t hyperbole. Look at the facts. (Feel free to suggest others.)
- The congressional approval rating is at 10% and falling.
- The SCOTUS might as well formally join the Chamber of Commerce having a 100% rule in favor of rating.
Two 1% puppets are running for president- Killing American citizens without due process is completely legal for the government.
- Wallstreet is clearly above the law.
- Occupy has proven that protest no longer accomplishes anything of substance or duration for the 99%.
- Civil disobedience has become a felony.
- The war on drugs and the war on terror are both overt wars on the poor.
- Over 45 million people in the richest country in the world have to beg the government for food, including me.
Nearly 20% of all human genes are patented.- Our property idolatry has left the bottom 80% of the population with just 7% of the total global wealth.
- The only factor that matters in an election is money to hire mind warping “Pubic Relations” firms.
- It’s long been illegal to overtly call for the violent overthrow of the government under ANY circumstances.
- We’re quickly returning to the gilded age.
- 93% of all new income generated between 2009 and 2010 went to the top 1% while the bottom 99% split the remaining 7%.
- We’re spending 500 million dollars to wipe out our best chance of energy independence and curing cancer.
- It’s getting more and more illegal to be poor.
- It’s perfectly legal to consistently and systematically extort and kill the sick for profit.
- Basically ~200 people get to choose who will be elected president.
- At least two people have read this sentence. You and someone at the NSA.
Indeed, even this post, despite (this sentence and) my overt and well known opposition to violence and vengeance could be construed as incitement of some quasi illegal type.
None of that is secret, or even uncommon knowledge. The facts have literally ceased to matter.
How bad does it have to get (for everyone, not just you) before talking about revolt stops being crazy/criminal talk?
Your silence is killing people, and the next death might well be yours.
“…the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” ~John Steinbeck
“There’s a point far out there, when the structures fail you and when the rules aren’t weapons anymore, they’re shackles, letting the bad guy get ahead… One day you may face such a moment of crisis.” ~Jim Gordon, DKR
Microsoft jumps on the Rights denial Steam bandwagon.
Update: http://consumerist.com/2013/12/19/watch-al-franken-shred-a-pro-arbitration-professor-for-trying-to-gloss-over-the-problem/
Today I got the following email.
We’ve updated the Microsoft Services Agreement, which governs many of our online services – including your Microsoft account and many of our online products and services for consumers, such as Hotmail, SkyDrive, Bing, MSN, Office.com, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Movie Maker, Windows Mail Desktop, and Windows Writer. Please read over the new Microsoft Services Agreement here to familiarize yourself with the changes we’ve made.
The updated agreement will take effect on October 19, 2012. If you continue to use our services after October 19th, you agree to the terms of the new agreement or, of course you can cancel your service at any time.
We have modified the agreement to make it easier to read and understand, including using a question and answer format that we believe makes the terms much clearer. We also clarified how Microsoft uses your content to better protect consumers and improve our products, including aligning our usage to the way we’re designing our cloud services to be highly integrated across many Microsoft products. We realize you may have personal conversations and store personal files using our products, and we want you to know that we prioritize your privacy.
Finally, we have added a binding arbitration clause and class action waiver that affects how disputes with Microsoft will be resolved in the United States.
Thank you for using Microsoft products and services!
This is exactly like that crap Steam has pulled. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2848908
https://plus.google.com/u/0/115056313943520401920/posts/fZfDdMgAVnK
I think this recent wave of class action terror is a strong sign that we should be demanding our right to it.
Rather than fighting the corporations on this individually perhaps we should demand legislation that makes it simply illegal to sign away your rights to legal recourse at all.
I mean really. What if I put a clause in a pre-nup saying my spouse lost her right to sue me for slapping her? Clearly that would be laughed out of court. How is denying access to a specific legal recourse as a condition of using the service any different? They are literally trying to be above the law.
Update: Now eBay is doing it as well.
Volitionism
I’ve come up finally with a name for my philosophy.
Volitionism is the term I’ve coined for a system of thought which extends from the axiomatic bedrock of pleasure and health being good to the overt conclusion that volition has sanctity and should be ultimately respected.
This manifests in a world view that rejects trickery, deception, authority, vengeance, and force. (Among other things.)
http://underlore.com/Food%20for%20Rage.html The word does not occur in this book yet but now that I’ve nailed it down, I’ll insert it. Yet this book is absolutely in line with it. I’ve known this and thought like this for decades but I didn’t have a name until today.
I may add more to this post.
“Thrive” Review
I’ve started watch this film at the suggestion of one of my G+ friends.
Right away I’m a little concerned. The music, the imagery, the whole “life is beautiful” pitch all are familiar elements typically calculated to manipulate. As they film went on some claims were made about a “code” and about infinite “energy.” I’m immediately reminded of “the secret” and other such crap.
As a result of this initial impression I Googled the name of the film’s primary character and found this.
https://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/tag/foster-gamble/
This break down of the film is much better than mine.
Timestamp 00:11:20
I really hate stuff like this. Crap that’s supposed to look like some kind of legitimate interview or spontaneous conversation when it’s really just a delivery mechanism for rhetoric. Further, this “patterns are everywhere” type talk while of course true is ultimately meaningless and is deployed to soften the critical defenses of the viewer. Yes nature loves a Torus, but it also loves spirals and circles and lines and and and…
I see the stupid fake smiles and nodding like this guy just now heard this crap for the first time. No.
Timestamp 00:15:00
Oh god here we go. Look, if you have free energy, prove it. Make the damn things and give them away. Wire up houses to be off grid or power sellers. Each house you do this with will become a permanently activist household. Their every negative electric bill will become a check. Or better yet pick a house, any house and start selling juice back and reinvest that money into more devices till you’re the power companies main supplier and you have a whole county worth of land to yourself, and stay public the whole time.
Contrary to popular opinion The Company isn’t capable of suppressing something like that.
Timestamp 00:16:00
Oh boy pyramids and Mayans! *facepalm*
Timestamp 00:19:00
Symbol geometry, pretty, but still inkblots and faces in the clouds. Yes geometry is ordered and there are parallels all over the world, that’s because 1+1=2 everywhere on our planet.
Timestamp 00:21:00
Uhh, it’s not a code. It’s an extrapolation from the same initial data.
If you want to explore the real version of this stuff check out Chaos it’s not the best book in the world if you’re shooting for your phd in chaos math but it’s cheap and interesting and a damn fine introduction.
Timestamp 00:22:00
Aliens… Look, even if true you’re dooming your argument. Dragging aliens in is a disservice to your argument and theirs.
Timestamp 00:26:00
Crop circles… Same deal, even if true, you’re screwing things up.
Timestamp 00:28:00
Ok I was unaware of this. It’s apparently called the Arecibo Crop Circle. That’s provocative. I’ll definitely be digging into that. I find the crop circle antennae connection thing intriguing as well.
Timestamp 00:29:00
Gah, this is like the geometric version of numerology. It’s like the 216 lecture in PI. Yes many of these images contain elements of the torus. But perhaps geometry is the point in and of itself, expressing math alone.
Also I just want to say higher math doesn’t require computers and high technology.
Timestamp 00:31:00
Eh, no, not really. The problem with being alone is that for all we know whole classes of study are dead ends. Light speed may well be inviolate and that may be impossible to prove. Godel predicts that every complete system has statements which are both true and unprovable. That may be one of them. Assuming that just because a species/culture is a million years our senior doesn’t mean they have all the answers or that they can accomplish anything we can think up.
Legitimacy of the UFO/alien/crop circle thing is countered by it’s vagueness. Whether or not study would revel X and whether or not study is being suppressed is irrelevant because ultimately it hasn’t revealed X for whatever reason. UFOs prove absolutely nothing about what’s possible or not in terms of FTL travel or power generation.
Timestamp 00:34:00
Tesla now? Sheesh is there a pop conspiracy topic not hijacked by this guy?
Timestamp 00:35:00
Yeah, sure it does pal, see above. When your device is responsible for me getting a check every month from the electric company then I’ll believe you. Yes there is juice everywhere, it’s called the electromagnetic field. If you can tap that, do it, quit talking about it and do it. Same thing for every free energy project. Wire up one house, spend the money building more, scale up. If the government takes it, upload the plans, NOT sell them, and build another one. If you’re being threatened then that’s all the more reason to release it and demand asylum somewhere.
If they are being murdered and silenced effectively then that’s a lesson to the rest of us to stop trying to be famous and rich with it and just give away the material.
I give up, I just don’t have the stamina to watch any more of this crap. I tried, I really did, maybe I’ll come back, but I doubt it.