You Can Opt Out of Sony's New ToS
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For those who don’t know, recently Sony released an updated Terms of Service(ToS) agreement. The new addition is as follows: “Any dispute resolution proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general legal action, unless both you and the Sony entity with which you have a dispute specifically agree to do so in writing following initiation of the arbitration. This provision does not preclude your participation as a member in a class action filed on or before August 20, 2011.” Basically, if you agree then you can’t perform class-action lawsuits against Sony for any problems you have with the PS3. Since you have to agree to the ToS to play online, it’s either waive your right to sue Sony, or don’t play online anymore. Not exactly a good thing for consumers, and it’s actually void in Europe and Australia due to laws in those regions which protect consumers from this sort of thing. Everywhere else though… no so much. However, for those not in Europe or Australia, you can still opt out after you agreed to the new terms. Just happens to be an opt-out clause: “If you do not wish to be bound by the binding arbitration and class action waiver in this Section 15, you must notify SNEI [Sony Network Entertainment] in writing within 30 days of the date that you accept this agreement.” So if you still want to retain your right to participate in class-action lawsuits, you must send Sony a letter with you’re name, address, PSN account, and a “clear statement that you do not wish to resolve disputes with any Sony entity through arbitration.” Once you have that prepared, mail it to the following: 6080 Center Drive Giantbomb has provided a handy template. What happens after that isn’t clear, but it’s still worth a shot. It’s a good thing that Sony provides people with a way to opt-out, but by burying this and the new clause in general in the ToS, there’s a very good chance that the majority of PSN users won’t even find out about it, since almost all never read the ToS. And doing this in the first place is… well pretty shitty, to put it bluntly. Whether or not it’ll hold up in court is still up in the air. Chances are, that in the US at least, the US Federal Trade Commission and/or the various US Consumer Protection Agencies will step in. I don’t think it’ll hold up in the US, but it’s still better to be prepared. If you agreed to Sony’s new ToS recently, I suggest mailing them as soon as you can. |
