"Read the Small Print" Wet Dream.

Dmitry

The use of small print veers close to corporate criminal behaviour. Courts in Russia sided with a ballsy lawyer who CHANGED THE SMALL PRINT because the credit company that issued the card didn't bother to read it. Corporations have been getting us to click and sign off in seconds to pages of boilerplate rules, rules that are just ducky for them and onerous for us.  When Tinkhoff Credit sent an unsolicited letter offering Dmitry Argarkov a credit card, Dmitry scanned the small print into his computer "changed the terms of the contract and returned it to the lender ... and they failed to notice".  He re-wrote it with  0% interest, an open line of credit and a huge penalty if Tinkhoff wanted out.  Tinkhoff Credit of course filed it away without a glance and issued the card.    The link above is to the story at The Independent.

"Agree somewhat"

When you download a new app, you commonly are asked to sign off on terms. You are invited to lie, saying you have read the entire document.  Not only that, you are asked to agree to the whole darn thing without a peep.  The people publishing the small print are expecting you to lie and they make money on it.   The size of the contract should reflect the size of the committment you are making.  If ten seconds is what you are investing in trying out some software, the company should offer you a handshake deal that you can review in about the same amount of time.  I quite often try to scan the key points of all the paragaphs but generally fail.

My favourite outrageous example:  The current iTunes Terms and Conditions.(August 1 2013)  It has 14,594 words in it.  Every time Apple updates iTunes or modifies how they want to deal with you, you are asked to lie that you have read and understood it all before downloading the latest Angry Birds app.  Apple knows you are lying.