Saturday, September 26, 2009

Serpentine Legalese

By creating a blog, have I sold these words to BlogSpot, or whatever corporation owns BlogSpot? Who has authority over the exiled truths of my effusive soul?

In my need to weep words, have my tears become possessions of the Wirelords?

Maybe there’s an answer in the contract I was forced to accept to get here. But to seek it is to dive into an ocean of legalese in search of a tiny jewel.

I suspect the jewel isn’t there. The corporations have other purposes than human dignity, purposes that override it.

Labyrinthian internet contracts are meant to be indecipherable. They are not instruments of good faith or trust. They are designed to keep us mystified and hostage.

Caveat Emptor. Let the Buyer Beware. And yet is this fair, or even conceivable, in a bureaucracy that dizzies the reader with multipage contracts written in minuscule font?

The answer is no. Welcome to the early 21th century. The era of serpentine software contracts that strangle clarity and kindness.

No comments:

Post a Comment