Lawyers (including lurking lawyers) on the list please feel free to correct me, but as I understand it, a contract is (or at least used to be) an agreement between two or more people (corporations are considered people) with consideration flowing between or among all parties.
The agreement part is easy: a meeting of the minds, all parties understanding what each other means and a clear view of what is required of each of them. Consideration is the "stuff" of the contract. If I say I'll give you 5$ for the book in your hand and you agree, the book and the $5 are the consideration. If I give you the money and you refuse to give me the book, we have an actionable contract and I can sue you. Otoh, if you say, "I'll give you this book for free," and I agree, you can change your mind and I can't do a thing about it. We had agreement but consideration only went one way (the book to me). Without consideration flowing both ways all we have is a broken promise; morally wrong but not legally wrong and not actionable. Okay, with Instagram I think we have an agreement (never mind that no one reads the fine print). Instagram agrees to provide image processing and ease of posting services. I agree to (whenever I feel like it) to use those services. My problem is, what's the consideration? Clearly consideration flows from Instagram to the user in the form of services made available. What flows from user to Instagram? I'd say that Bob is right: user information which can then be sold or used. I would even say that if Instagram doesn't compile, sell or otherwise use customer information that the fact that you have registered is to their benefit. "We have over 100,000,000 users worldwide with 10,000 a day signing up!", will attract advertisers, investors, buyers. They benefit from your mere presence. So to my mind there is clearly a contract. The terms of service are clearly terms (in a legal sense) of that contract, meaning they cannot be changed without the agreement of all parties. IG can't impose them. They have to let each individual user know they are being changed and give them a chance to un-register if they don't agree. Any photo posted pre-change would not be subject to IG using for free, unless the user agrees. If any user leaves I think it would be implied that they do not agree to such use of images already submitted. Sorry to be long winded but that's my take on the legality of it all. Cheers, frank --- Original Message --- From: Igor Roshchin <s...@komkon.org> Sent: December 26, 2012 12/26/12 To: PDML@pdml.net Subject: Re: Class Action lawsuit against Instagram Wed Dec 26 13:31:13 EST 2012 Bob W wrote: > > From: PDML [mailto:pdml-bounces at pdml.net] On Behalf Of Igor Roshchin > > > > $Subj. is filed: > > > > http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/12/24/instagram-privacy-lawsuit- > > facebook-idINDEE8BN08N20121224 > > > > While people can be emotionally charged (as in outraged), this type of > > lawsuit can create a weird precedent: even if you are providing free > > services, you can be taken to court. > > What would be next? A bum will sue somebody donating him money? > > > > if the donation required the bum to sign up to a legal contract first then > yes, why not? A contract's a contract, free or not, and you can't expect to > change it one-sidedly in your favour without some pushback. > > Besides, the services that Instagram, Google and so on provide are not free. > The suppliers use your data for their own purposes, so that's what they get > in return for the services. I spend an inordinate amount of time at work > having to tell people this when they keep asking why they can't download > 'free' shit onto their work computers, or save work documents on 'free' > storage sites. > > B > > > I don't know how it is in other countries, but it feels that in the US, > > a lot of people have a [false] sense of entitlement. > > People so much used to "free" services, that it's hard to imagine what > > would happen if Google would decide to close Gmail. > > > > > > Igor Bob, I am not sure, but I doubt that it is actually a _contract_. Rather, typically, when you are signing up for a free account, you are agreeing to "Terms of use" and "Terms of service"... Whether it is a contract or not, - it does not promise you indefinite service, and it can be terminated at any point. It is an "at will" agreement, that can be terminated by either side at any time. As far as I know (sorry, I didn't investigate that part carefully), - Instagram didn't take anybody's photos hostage (unlike, say, fotki.com earlier this year [*]). So, everybody could take their photos and leave, given the ample notice. I agree with you about "free", that's why I put that word in quotation marks in the second part of my message. ------- [*] http://pdml.net/pipermail/pdml_pdml.net/2012-August/320425.html Igor -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
