Topic: Contracts can't be changed online without notice, court rules

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

July 27, 2007  (Computerworld) -- A federal appeals court has ruled that companies can't change their contracts and post those revisions online without notifying customers first.

According to the court documents, Douglas signed a contract for service with America Online. The business was then acquired by Talk America, which continued to provide telephone service to AOL's former customers. However, Talk America changed the contract AOL had with its customers and posted those changes on its Web site without notifying the customers first.

The company added several provisions, including an increase in prices, an arbitration clause and a class-action suit waiver.

Hopefully this will stand up and be applied to software EULAs. 

[Just plain old Punisher]

What needs to happen is simple: The contract needs to be cancelled....and THEN renegotiated. Forget this notification crap and automatic renewal crap.

If either party wants to change the contract, then it needs to be cancelled first.

[Nemesis]

The contract needs to be cancelled....and THEN renegotiated.

Of course there needs to be a cancellation clause or a mutual agreement to cancel.