Sony: Supreme Court ruling spurred changes to PlayStation terms

Sony: Supreme Court ruling spurred changes to PlayStation terms
(CNN) -- People don't typically pay attention to
software agreements, but PlayStation owners may want to read
a recent update to their digital contract.
Last week Sony changed the terms-of-service document for
its PlayStation Network, asking U.S. customers to forfeit their
rights to file class-action lawsuits against the company
and its partners. Customers can opt out by sending the
company a letter in the mail.

Sony's PlayStation Network, which allows subscribers to
play games and watch movies online, was down for weeks
last spring following a security breach that exposed
personal details of 77 million users. Users immediately began
filing class-action lawsuits.

Sony said this week that the new terms-of-service
changes were made, as some analysts suspected, in
response to a Supreme Court decision in April. In that case,
AT&T Mobility was permitted to include and
enforce a clause in employment contracts that bars
workers from bringing class-action suits.

"The Supreme Court recently ruled in the AT&T case that
language like this is enforceable," a spokeswoman for
Sony's PlayStation unit wrote in an e-mail.
"The updated language in the TOS is designed to benefit
both the consumer and the company by ensuring that there is
adequate time and procedures to resolve disputes."

Like AT&T, Sony prefers to settle disputes outside of court
through a process called arbitration.
Arbiters are typically retired judges who fetch an hourly rate
of $300 or more, a fee that's generally split between the two
parties on top of any costs for hiring lawyers, said Jack Lerner,
a director at the University of Southern

California's Technology Law Clinic. That would deter anyone
looking to correct unfair charges of a few dollars to an individual,
which could amount to millions if the problem was widespread
and settled as a class action in court, he said.
Arbitration also does not involve a jury, which
could include people more sympathetic to consumers
than to corporations.

The AT&T suit was first brought in 2006 by customers
who complained of being charged $30 in state taxes
for a cell phone that was advertised as free.
The 5-4 Supreme Court vote came, ironically, on the
same day in April that PlayStation customers began
filing class-action lawsuits against
Sony for losing their personal data to hackers.

Sony added the new clause last week, apparently
to protect itself against potential future
widespread and costly blunders.

Courts haven't been lenient in the past about
enforcing software agreements, despite the reality
that few people read them, Lerner said.
This year's court ruling in the AT&T case likely
won't be overturned anytime soon, unless Congress
intervenes with changes to the law, he said.
"That was an absolute travesty," Lerner said.
"The implications for consumers (are) staggering."
Sony's new user agreement describes how to opt
out of the class-action waiver. Future class-action
suits against Sony from PlayStation online
account-holders would only include people who made
the effort to send a written letter, lowering the
ultimate costs to Sony.
Including an option to dodge the waiver
"was a savvy move by Sony because they
didn't necessarily have to do it," Lerner said.
The move should enable Sony to argue in court that
it played fair, he said. Likely less than 1% of
PlayStation users, of whom there are more than 77
million worldwide, would go through the process
of opting out, he estimated.

PlayStation Network users were alerted of the
class-action changes in e-mails and in a note
near the top of the agreement. Gamers are unable
to play online or watch Internet video from services
like Netflix until they agree to the contract update on their consoles.

It takes 45 seconds, using a game controller, to
scroll to the part of the document that describes
the legal waiver. It takes a minute and a half to
scroll through the entire document, and certainly much longer to actually read it.




tl;dr sony is a super cool company who loves its customers
very much, at least in the ps 3 department
source/link: Sony: Supreme Court ruling spurred changes to PlayStation terms - CNN.com - StumbleUpon

 

sony always sucked. it took this for you to see it thats all.

sony doesnt give two shits about ps3 owners at all, everything in the ps3 department is done lazy half assed, in terms of how sony treats its ps3 customers, sony is a big company, and the playstation is just a fraction.
Microsoft takes its xbox area of its business much more serious then sony and its playstation.

fuck sony! fuck sony with a big rubber dick up the ass till sony bleeds.