Last year I was told local chiropractor who had treated a couple people I knew. They both had terrific experiences and regularly drove over an hour to visit. As it took me more than an hour (each way) to see my chiropractor I could potentially keep the same level of care I was used to and save a long drive so I was happy to give a try and made an appointment for early morning.
Now I still had to drive about 30minutes, so it was an early morning but I was excited to experience such a noteworthy adjustment. I was one of the first there that morning and was shown into a small cubicle to fill out my paperwork. Everything was as expected until I got to the Treatment Consent form. Within the first paragraph and clause I knew there was no way I could possibly sign this document.
Neatly typed in those opening lines were the: waiving of a trial by jury, a unilateral waiving of liability clause for any present or future staff member of the organization, and an assignment clause. Needless to say I was SHOCKED. When the staff member came back in I asked if this was required for treatment. Her response was immediate, “Oh yes. Our insurance company requires this of all our patients.” I responded by asking her how many people refused to sign. She said, none. She can no longer truthfully say none if asked that question again as I took my completed forms and walked out.
Mr. Piccolo probably never thought that wanting to watch reruns of ABC’s Full House would become a legal matter in a wrongful death lawsuit for his wife, but it did. In 2024 Disney© argued that his acceptance of the License Agreement in his free trial of the Disney+ streaming service constituted a broader agreement for binding arbitration.1 Disney wasn’t alone in their effort as CNN describes, “other companies such as Airbnb and Walmart that are using increasingly aggressive strategies in attempts to steer lawsuits they face from consumers into arbitration”2 and the trend will continue.
I asked one of those giant hoovers of copyrighted content buried behind End User License Agreements (EULA) for an estimate of how many different agreements are likely nested into watching a typical online show.
At minimum you’re at three, your ISP, device+OS (combine) if you’re on an Apple device, and the Stream Service itself. Three exhaustive, boring, and legally wrangled documents designed to restrict your abilities to hold them accountable. As you all know, these are not agreements which you can take a pen to, edit, and go back and forth with corporate counsel regarding. No, these are ACCEPT or DECLINE. And when you chose the later the device you bought, the application you might require, or the adjustment for your ailing back become unobtanium.
How then, in this world, can it be said that anyone, or anything, is democratizing media?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jl0ekjr0go
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/16/politics/arbitration-signing-away-rights-disney-plus-wrongful-death-lawsuit/index.html