Disney tried to force the case into arbitration by citing the agreement on the widower’s Disney Plus trial account.

Disney has now agreed that a wrongful death lawsuit should be decided in court following backlash for initially arguing the case belonged in arbitration because the grieving widower had once signed up for a Disney Plus trial.

“With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” chairman of Disney experiences Josh D’Amaro said in a statement to The Verge. “As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”

  • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “We got caught by the public, and we want to keep this excuse possible in the future. So we’re dropping it from now so the court doesn’t set a legal precedent that will fuck us over.”

  • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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    3 months ago

    Arbitration is an abomination, abused to quash the rights of regular people who could hardly afford to take a stand against the big guy in the first place.

    That a person can sign away their legal rights at all is a miscarriage of justice.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      Arbitration, generally, is not a bad idea. It’s less formal and usually less expensive when you have a disagreement. It really is designed for, say, two friends who are going into business together and want to keep things friendly while giving each other the ability to seek an external arbitor.

      However, it’s our late stage capitalism that has made forced arbitration an abomination, with corporations seeking to limit their liability by making it unprofitable for individuals to seek legal remedies against very large corporations. Corporations that have the legal equivalent of nukes verses the average customer who has a peashooter.

      I’m at the point whenever I see these clauses to snail mail then my own terms and if they don’t react, I assume that my terms were accepted. I’ve been doing this now for the last few years and have yet to have a company shut off my service or reply back.

      • Null User Object@programming.dev
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        3 months ago

        snail mail then my own terms and if they don’t react, I assume that my terms were accepted.

        I’m pretty sure you haven’t run this strategy by a lawyer. If you’ve actively agreed to their terms and they haven’t responded to your counter terms… How do you imagine a court is going to interpret that?

        • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 months ago

          I use their exact same language of “by continuing to allow access to the system, you agree to the terms.”

          I am not a lawyer but the way I see it, there is no downside.

          • if it’s accepted by a court, then I win
          • if it’s not accepted, then the language itself is now influx, opening the door for me or others to use the ruling to continue to chip away at forced arbitration and I’m no worse off than just accepting their terms
      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        However, it’s our late stage capitalism

        It’s not capitalism. It’s rent-seeking, which is what came before capitalism. The “Free Market” that Adam Smith talked about wasn’t a market free from regulations, it was a market free from economic rents, free from monopolies, etc. The big problems we’re seeing now aren’t because we have too much capitalism, it’s because the capitalism we have is shifting more towards rent-seeking, monopolies, artificial scarcity, etc. It’s basically feudalism. In a proper capitalist system you have competition. That’s the “free market”. If someone doesn’t like the decisions a business is making, they’ll switch to another one.

        Companies can only get away with the kinds of things Disney tries when they don’t have to worry about competition. In other words, it’s no longer a capitalist system, it’s a rent-seeking business. Disney is built around its intellectual property, and IP is nothing but rent-seeking. Nobody can compete with Disney and make a better Star Wars movie because Disney owns the rights to anything Star Wars related.

      • Glemek@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Do you sent via certified mail or something else that has proof of receipt, and how do you decide who at the company to send it to?

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    we decided to waive our right to arbitration

    Fuuuuck you with an umbrella. You didn’t have that right, you just used that bullshit idea to save yourself from rightful consequences. You only stopped that idea after the massive backlash, as always. You don’t get to act like the good guy uere., fuck you.

    I can’t wait for Disney to go bankrupt and be split up in twenty normal entertainment companies

    • Killer_Tree@sh.itjust.works
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      Do you have some reason why you think they will be bankrupt and/or split up?

      I wouldn’t hold my breath for a bankruptcy - Disney has Gross profits of ~30 Billion a year and net profits of ~2-5 Billion a year. Even if their lawyers become completely incompetent and allow them to be sued for max penalties every month of the year, it wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket.

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        The parks have been running at a loss and they’ve been spending like crazy on acquisitions and running all said acquisitions into the ground

      • FantasmaNaCasca@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I met a shitposter from modern social media,
        Who asked with a frown, wrinkle lip
        And sneer of cold contempt:

        “Do you have some reason why you think
        This company with vast amounts of these
        stamped lifeless things
        Will go bankrupt and/or split up?”

        But regardless of all the corp-simping,
        In the future, only these words survive.

        "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

        Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

        Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

        Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

        The lone and level sands stretch far away."

          • FantasmaNaCasca@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Some kind of Stockholm syndrome i guess.

            This companies violates us constantly, but most people are so traumatised by ads and social presure that they don’t see it anymore.

            I put ads before social presure due to comedy, but also:

            Ads eats brains. Thus creating mindless consumers. Oh look, the perfect consumer!

  • Tudsamfa@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration

    That’s legalese for “We still think that we have that right, we will use it again”.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      That’s legalese for “We still think that we have that right, we will use it again”.

      Or for “we don’t want this to get invalidated in court - we need to save it so we can intimidate someone else in the future”.

    • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      “Just when we have less heat on us and the news doesn’t have everyone so riled up and hating us.”

    • Bojimbo@lemmy.world
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      I think they realized that this is the kind of case that could affect arbitration laws if pushed up in appellate courts.

    • Dorkyd68@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They could settle out of cout for an amount that they could earn back in under a week. Now they wanna go to court where they’ll end up paying more. Get fucked Disney

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    3 months ago

    I’m just confused how anyone thought this was a good idea to begin with. Surely the strong public backlash could have been easily anticipated.

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    3 months ago

    “unique circumstances” we got caught and too many people heard about it

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    3 months ago

    A disney SWAT team kicked down my door and scream-asked me at gunpoint if I’d seen the Mandalorian.

    I hear it’s been happening a lot.

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    3 months ago

    I don’t advocate the high seas.

    But man, a TOS like this makes me glad I didn’t watch Andor via Disney+. I certainly don’t feel bad about it now.

    And to the Disney legalbot, I watched it via a friend, of course.

    • abracaDavid@lemmy.today
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      I mean this is actually an ethical argument to be pro piracy.

      Trying to use the terms of service for a streaming service in order to sweep a death under the rug is completely insane and no one should give money to company like that.

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    3 months ago

    Jesus, this story made me feel so fucking gross. So fucking disgusting what they were trying to do.