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US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

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Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#361
post #288
post #166

There are so many advantages to turning off and disconnecting these days. Avoiding TOS is just a small part. There are too many demands on our attention and our wallets and most of us aren't getting more money or time. I cancelled all the family's streaming services in 2025. Everyone adapted. It turns out a lot of things we are told we need, we really don't. People lived without them as recently as a few years ago. A…

As an avid reader and outdoors enthusiast, I feel there’s a lot of value on “wasting” time with a movie or limited series. Absolutely, there are so many better things to do and experience than watching TV, but no one should be stressing out about maximizing their time doing them. In fact, going against that mindset once in a while, and allowing yourself to not do the thing you think you should be doing, is an experie…

Wasted time should not be defined as unproductive time, it should be time you did not experience, time you were completely clocked out, not even enjoyed, not relaxed or relished. Wasted. It is a subtle difference but critical to remember if you want to reclaim your time rather than claiming it for capitalism.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#362
post #322
post #166

There are so many advantages to turning off and disconnecting these days. Avoiding TOS is just a small part. There are too many demands on our attention and our wallets and most of us aren't getting more money or time. I cancelled all the family's streaming services in 2025. Everyone adapted. It turns out a lot of things we are told we need, we really don't. People lived without them as recently as a few years ago. A…

> It turns out a lot of things we are told we need, we really don't. People lived without them as recently as a few years ago. It also often turns out that when some new way comes along to do something that people like to do, the ways they used to do those things go away. If you don't like the new way you can't go back to how it used to be done. The last physical media video rental store within a reasonable drive of…

> Those who liked being able to be able to rent a movie without planning days ahead are stuck with streaming now.

Just want to point out that public libraries often have great DVD collections (also music, games, and more) and are often underutilized. Definitely still a viable way to watch a movie for many folks.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#363
post #166

There are so many advantages to turning off and disconnecting these days. Avoiding TOS is just a small part. There are too many demands on our attention and our wallets and most of us aren't getting more money or time. I cancelled all the family's streaming services in 2025. Everyone adapted. It turns out a lot of things we are told we need, we really don't. People lived without them as recently as a few years ago. A…

Did you set up any alternatives?

I have a todo to take a day and hook my external SSDs filled with movies/shows up to a plex server, then shutdown all my streaming services.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#364
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any $10/mo VPN solves this, and probably advertises it as a selling point. Of course, then you're spending $10 to save $10.... I have the whole *arr stack setup with Plex running in the US just fine, but that's for sure not for everyone and was a few headaches to get up and running

>Of course, then you're spending $10 to save $10.... Most VPN subscriptions are around $5, whereas netflix with ads costs $8, and $18 without ads. Even at $18 though, it's still not 4K, whereas you can easily pirate 4K versions with your VPN subscription.

Appreciate the reality check. Mullvad has been a bill I don't think about twice when it comes around, and I cancelled streaming services years ago.

To your point though, as I'm running my plex server on an old ~midrange laptop, 4K is pretty rough for me to stream as well. I'm sure better hardware fixes this, but that's higher cost. YMMV based on what hardware you have on hand to repurpose

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#365

The issue is the consumer here doesn’t want to be forced into arbitration. There is legislation proposed to end forced arbitration in consumer contracts like ToS. https://hankjohnson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/re...

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/3010

Sadly, this bill has been around since 2007, introduced by the very same Hank Johnson! I would love if Congress would put an end to the forced-arbitration bullshit that so obviously does an end-run around your 7th amendment rights and makes a farce of informed consent, but alas, they couldn't even get it through when Democrats held the presidency, the house, and 60 seats in the senate.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar boat...I'd also like to swap off Plex but a few of my less techie friends use it and I'm worried about the compatibility/ease of setup of Jellyfin on their devices. Thought about running both in parallel but that seems like a waste. Think I just need a migration day eventually

I've never run Plex, or Jellyfin for that matter. There's a video share on my NAS. I point Infuse on Apple TV 4K's at it. It works, and cleanly. Downsides: you have to pay for Infuse Pro to play some formats and deal with some audio codecs. It's IIRC $17 for a year, though, so pretty reasonable for continued development. Your non-technical friends and family can't do the initial setup themselves (it's shared over Tai…

It's just weird that it's this complicated. We should get a static IP from our DNS. We should use standard open source streaming conversion mechanisms. It should go over basic video codecs.

Lately I've been working towards just using a webserver to host video files. Sure, it's not adaptive, but for goodness sakes it's simple.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#368
post #288
post #166

There are so many advantages to turning off and disconnecting these days. Avoiding TOS is just a small part. There are too many demands on our attention and our wallets and most of us aren't getting more money or time. I cancelled all the family's streaming services in 2025. Everyone adapted. It turns out a lot of things we are told we need, we really don't. People lived without them as recently as a few years ago. A…

As an avid reader and outdoors enthusiast, I feel there’s a lot of value on “wasting” time with a movie or limited series. Absolutely, there are so many better things to do and experience than watching TV, but no one should be stressing out about maximizing their time doing them. In fact, going against that mindset once in a while, and allowing yourself to not do the thing you think you should be doing, is an experie…

Seriously you can have a very pure experience interacting with media. I did a mushroom trip ~5 years ago and was having a not great time walking around outside. Cars, other people, sun, bugs etc. were all not sitting right. I went home and watched "Life in Colour", an Attenborough documentary about amazing uses of color in animals. It was a top experience and I still remember scenes from it years later.

Anyway don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and all that, there is a reason we developed digital entertainment.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#369

Semi-serious question: can I send a company a letter that modifies the terms and say that continuing to provide me the service implies consent?

Semi-serious answer: No, the company only gave themselves the right to unilaterally amend the terms, not you.

Re: US Court of Appeals: TOS may be updated by email, use can imply consent [pdf]

#370

IMHO the problem is allowing changes to terms and conditions for existing contracts. If I have a contract with a company, that contract was made under existing T&C. The company should not be able to change those conditions without my explicit permission. Denying me service if I disagree should not be a valid option. I get this periodically on our overly-computerized car: Here are new T&C, click yes to agree. You can…

break the screen
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