Digital Contracts Define Rights

This is a U.S. news story, published by Default, that relates primarily to John Sutter news.

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internet regulation

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This article explores the ways in which contract is a powerful force today—effectively acting as the public law for our internet

Summary

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75% Informative

This makes terms of service something like public law for the internet, says Lawfare Institute's John Sutter .

Sutter: We face a choice: We can retreat from our contractarian internet policy and impose limits on contract ex ante.

The social impact of today ’s digital terms of service is felt in the aggregate.

It is hard to imagine an individual claimant having the incentive or standing to bring a suit that would require a court to inquire into the widespread social impact.

The U.S. has decided, as a society, to opt into a private empire, where public laws do not apply.

If the problem is aggregate societal harms from individual contracts, the solution cannot be individual complaints from single litigants.

The solution must be some kind of aggregated complaint that alleges harms on behalf of the entire republic.

State attorneys general could bring suit in parens patriae to block enforcement of today ’s platform terms of service.

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informal

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English

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