unconscionability

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  • The Lawbringer: Unconscionability

    by 
    Michael Sacco
    Michael Sacco
    02.22.2010

    No, no, please, AHHH!!!! I never agreed to this! Oh yes you did -- see the "Being tortured by random NPCs" clause in your EULA.* There's no such thi-aieeeee! So the last two weeks we've talked about some provisions in the End User License Agreement and Terms of Use that you might not have known about. Remember, all your pixels are belong to Blizzard, and Blizzard is in ur raid, banning ur cheaters. Given that, you may be wondering if there is any way for you to get some of those provisions changed while still being allowed to play the game. (Like all addicts we know quitting is not an option.) The answer is "Technically, yes," using a concept called unconscionability. (I have been informed that this concept is far more beloved of crusading law students than practicing lawyers, so I apologize for last week's improper characterization.) Before we get too far into this idea, I want to make something perfectly clear: your odds of winning a court battle to get a contract provision altered for unconscionability are about the same as successfully raiding Ulduar in blues. Yes, it can be done, but that guild run took insanely skilled players, lots of tries, and an immense amount of luck. In the unconscionability case below, it took an excellent legal team, enough money to finance going to court, and a judge sympathetic to a plaintiff who didn't like his videogame contract.