Pokemon GO leads a teen to a long lost body.

Author Topic: Pokemon GO leads a teen to a long lost body.  (Read 3498 times)

it was bound to happen, kids are going outside for the first time now.

You can sue, but you'll loose 100% for sure if it states in the terms and conditions that they are not responsible for what you do while using the app and they put a disclaimer telling you to drive safely, watch where you're going be aware of your surroundings etc.

Depending on the judge, the case might just be thrown out altogether. It's really open and shut.
A release of liability form will only keep the company from harm if they are not endangering their consumers in any unreasonable way. It's legally nothing--a reminder at best that they can bring up to say "Hey, we warned them not to do X and they said they wouldn't sue us if they did."

Companies do not set their own terms of liability. A company cannot abduct you and steal your organs because you checked "Agree" on a 45 page mstar fishcript of terms and conditions. They are not legally bijnding.

Unless you actually negotiate a paid contract--like with a stunt actor, the court will only take your liability warning into consideration.

So as I said before:
If Pokemon Go put extra rare ghost Pokemon on toxic radiation landfills and sent users to collect them, it wouldn't matter how many disclaimers you sign without reading, you could sue them for putting the consumer in harm's way.

Obviously I would never encourage such a frivolous lawsuit, but let's not sit here and act like it's impossible in any way.
I don't think the lawsuit would get anywhere, but that is because Pokemon Go does not endanger users beyond sending them out walking, which many people would do anyway.

...terms and conditions. They are not legally binding.
the electronic frontier foundation disagrees
also, so does nolo.com
aaaand precept law group
and if you wanna get really into it, here's a description of a case specifically related to that, where such an agreement was found to be legally binding

obviously any old company can't just abduct you and harvest your organs because you agreed to a terms of service, but that doesn't mean they aren't legally binding. that's just illegal to begin with
« Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 10:44:09 PM by Foxscotch »

Except since it's a civil case, the most you could do is sue someone who sues after violates those conditions. The judge could rule any way they wish--it's a dispute, not a criminal act, so they have the leeway to make a decision grounded in the law. While the ToS will almost certainly come up in the case--perhaps even decide it, they are not legally binding. One of the most important factors is whether or not the ToS seems reasonable. For example "You agree to allow us to plant cookies in your browser" would certainly be reasonable, but "We will subtract $5 from your bank account each day your account is active." would most likely not be considered as such, unless made extremely clear as part of the website's deal.

Nothing is really legally binding in a lawsuit. I guess you could counter-sue for suing in violation of those ToS, and I'm sure a lot of companies have. You say they can't do something illegal via the ToS, and while that's obviously true, a lawsuit could definitely still be filed over over a legal abuse.

Here's a legal example: You use a stock trade estimation website. In the ToS they sneakily include that "85% of the profit from stocks invested via our Website will go to EvilCorp LLC" or something like that. It's pressed in with a blurb of text. This is certainly grounds for a lawsuit, as you would have no prior assumption assuming that they would take your stock money. They might say "But he agreed to the ToS!" and the judge would probably discard that information.

So as I said, if Pokemon Go did something to seriously endanger it's users, it doesn't matter how maybe boxes you clicked. I'm not saying they are endangering anyone--it's just a hypothetical. The upheld case you linked was a dispute over wireless data charges, something common and expected in the industry. They did not do something unprecedented and malicious.

edited to mention I would not support a frivolous lawsuit
« Last Edit: July 11, 2016, 03:59:55 AM by McZealot »