Website Terms Of Use
Published January 3rd, 2008 in Ridiculing Stupidity, Web PagesSome people still look at the web the same way they look at paper and one of the worst cases of this is having website terms of use. These terms often include something to the effect of “If you do not agree to these terms, you may not use the website.” I love the irony. You have to agree to the terms of use to use the site but you have to use the site to view the terms of use, brilliant!
Often these terms are excessively verbose. Check out the Trumba Terms and Conditions of Use. At just shy of 5,000 words, you’ll be cruising their site in no time!
You are granted a limited, non-exclusive right to create a text hyperlink to the Site, provided such link does not portray Trumba or any of its products and services in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise defamatory manner and provided further that the linking site does not contain any adult or illegal material or any material that is offensive, harassing or otherwise objectionable. This limited right may be revoked at any time.
Ah crap, I hope they don’t revoke my right to link to their site!
Trumba makes no claim or representation regarding, and accepts no responsibility for, the quality, content, nature or reliability of third-party Web sites accessible by hyperlink from the Site… TRUMBA DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE SITE, THE SERVICES, THE SOFTWARE, THE USER CONTENT, OR THE MATERIALS ARE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT OR ERROR-FREE.
In other words, the sites they link to may or may not be “good” and the Trumba site itself might be full of errors, but all sites that link to Trumba must be good or they’ll lose their right to link!
Some day people will catch up with technology and maybe the laws will too… I just don’t think that day will be any time in 2008.
This kind of stuff always makes me laugh. Like when I hear someone say they’re going to tell some other site that they can’t link to them without their permission and to stop and remove the link.
Just like with email signatures that claim that the information in the email is copyrighted and cannot be retransmitted in any form without permission… and it’s on some forward full of blinking images about loving your friends.
Haha, yeah, the email messages are great. They often have some statement saying that the email is private or confidential and should not be read without permission. If it’s so secret, why are they transmitting it in plain text across the Internet?