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The extent of the lack of credibility

What I'm about to right is word for word out of this agreement: *Bolded important bits*
EA's terms of agreement to Sales:

By entering into this Agreement, you and EA expressly waive the right to a trial by jury and to participate in a class action. With respect to this Section, References to "EA," "you," and "us" include our respective subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, employees, predecessors in interest, successors, and assigns, as well as all authorized or unauthorized users or beneficiaries of services or software under this or prior agreements between us. This Agreement evidences a transaction in interstate commerce, and thus the Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section. This arbitration provision shall survive termination of this Agreement.

A...

B. Binding Arbitration. If you and EA are unable to resolve a Dispute through informal negotiations within 30 days after receipt of the Notice of Dispute, either you or EA may elect to have the Dispute finally and exclusively resolved by binding arbitration. Any election to arbitrate by one party shall be final and binding on the other. YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ABSENT THIS PROVISION, YOU WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL. The arbitration shall be commenced and conducted under the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) and, where appropriate, the AAA’s Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes (“AAA Consumer Rules”), both of which are available at the AAA website AAA - Arbitration, Mediation and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Your arbitration fees and your share of arbitrator compensation shall be governed by the AAA Rules and, where appropriate, limited by the AAA Consumer Rules. If such costs are determined by the arbitrator to be excessive, or if you send EA a notice to the Notice of Dispute address above indicating that you are unable to pay the fees required to initiate an arbitration, then EA will promptly pay all arbitration fees and expenses. The arbitration may be conducted in person, through the submission of documents, by phone or online. The arbitrator shall make a decision in writing, and shall provide a statement of reasons if requested by either party. The arbitrator must follow applicable law, and any award may be challenged if the arbitrator fails to do so. You and EA may litigate in court to compel arbitration, to stay proceeding pending arbitration, or to confirm, modify, vacate or enter judgment on the award entered by the arbitrator.
The rest is common sense.

It's not really that uncommon to see an arbitration clause on a EULA or on the TOS for whatever software or service you buy. Doesn't necessarily mean that it would hold up though.

With that said, EA as a company is a piece of ****. They put out decent titles but have very shady business practices. A good example of this would be the bans that people receive on EA's forums that not only ban you from the forum, but also locks you out of the games you paid for (not just online, but single player to) Not to mention that most of the bans were for idiotic reasons...

I don't dive into these sort of ordeals. The language in that document sounds like a lawyer lecturing me. Why do companies make legal documents that are intended for costumer use almost illiterate in layman's terms? Any other specific companies that do this sort of thing besides EA?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo (Post 165117)

The language in that document sounds like a lawyer lecturing me.

That's because a lawyer wrote it, or at least had a part in writing it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo (Post 165117)

Why do companies make legal documents that are intended for costumer use almost illiterate in layman's terms?

Unfortunately, it's not written for the layman.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo (Post 165117)

Essentially, because they can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo (Post 165117)

I would assume any that asks you to sign a terms of service agreement?

It's for EA to cover their arses so they can't get sued like Sony did for putting malware on people's computers. Of course, the best practice is just to avoid all games/applications that come with malware in the first place - Ubisoft is another extremely dodgy company, and one which I have personally decided to boycott indefinitely based on their current stance on malware and Digital Restrictions Management.

Whatever, it's not like I pay for them ;):cool:

Unfortunately, you have to tolerate nonsense like this if you want to play multiplayer games on any game company's servers. (with a few notable exclusions, like Halo PC and a few oldies, and cracked servers which usually have bad admins or ping 9000<)

We didn't used to have to tolerate that sort of thing. :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by Human No More (Post 165150)

... and Digital Restrictions Management.

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7...2503775972.jpg

I can say I read that, and really didn't understand what they were saying. I thought there was some scale, I forget exactly what it's called, I know microsoft word tells you it when you spell check, but it's a number that's supposed to represent how difficult your text is. It's like the level, like high school, college, lawyer, etc. And I know there's a limit all official government documents have to be below, but I don't know about lawyers for something like EA. They should have to be below a certain level though, otherwise they can write it in such a complex way it's difficult to understand what they are actually saying.