10 réponses à ce sujet

[Baskervore]

My fellow Clickers,

I would just like to point out to all of you that, if you win a Bazaar auction, EA can legally force you to participate in "publicity initiatives" without any consent other than simply winning an auction.  Here is the particular sentence in question, taken from the auction rules page:

"You agree that as a condition to being awarded any prize, you may be required to take part in marketing and publicity initiatives without further consent or payment."

It goes on to say that they can use your

1. Name
2. Likeness
3. City
4. Username

To be honest, it would not be a big deal to me for them to use those four things, as long as their method of obtaining my "likeness" is "me sending a photo of myself to them by e-mail or snail mail".  But the auction rules are (purposely) vague as to what "publicity initiatives" can include, which therefore means that you may be required skip work (without pay, depending on your employer's policies) or skip personal events (like your son's baseball game, or taking your wife out to eat on her birthday, or getting emergency surgery to remove your recently discovered brain tumor) in order for EA to get their video interview. 

I know that EA is very much a for profit company, and EA is just in it for the money (and publicity).  And you know what? That's ok, because this is America, and we do capitalism here.  But, here in America, we also believe in certain inalienable rights, like the right to not be a publicity robot.

I'm Commander Shepard and - ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL - beep boop beep boop - EA turned me into a publicity robot by slipping a tiny little legal obligation into the auction rules.



I just thought that people should know this before they bid on auctions, so that they can make informed decisions. If EA was more up front about the publicity requirement, then this wouldn't be a big deal to me.

Happy Easter everyone!

EDIT NOTE: The particular section of the Auction Rules in question is Section 3.3.2 Winner Selection and Notification paragraph 2.

Modifié par Baskervore, 03 avril 2010 - 05:02 .

[Tymaara]

Normal MO for prize giveaways. you see it every month in your favorite magazine that gives out free subs, or whatever. Also it affects all those "winner" lists you see after big contests. Trust me when I say they're not going to be posting your picture with the slogan "I'm BioWare" underneath hoping to rake in big cash.

[tee_bird]

Honestly, I doubt it would be "SKIP WORK OR WE TAKE YOUR PRIZE BACK!"



But I wouldn't mind them using my likeness for stuff.

[I Deadbolt I]

i dont mind being EA's tool

[cynicalsaint1]

It just means they can post your picture and say "Here's our big winner."



Also its not without your consent. By accepting your prize you're consenting to those rules.

[TrueWindoze]

Ha, EA. pft.

[TrueWindoze]

Eli-da-Mage wrote...
 They aren't the embodiment of all evil...

Ha, they're pretty darn close.

[Sherana]

Not that they even could. It's a blanket description to cover everything they *can* do; surprisingly, there are actually things that it's illegal to claim through contract, and just because its there doesn't mean it has force. A blanket term is just a way to keep everything that *is* allowed while excluding what isn't.

You're not someone's slave if you get tricked into a contract with that buried in the fine print.

Finally, as someone pointed out earlier, there IS a simple way out; if you truly object to something they want to do with you, just break contract.  They'd be within rights to rescind your prize, but they can't force you to do anything.

Modifié par Sherana, 03 avril 2010 - 05:43 .

[Baskervore]

Sherana wrote...

You're not someone's slave if you get tricked into a contract with that buried in the fine print.

This is good to know.  But I'm willing to bet that getting out of the contract will be as quick and easy as saying "oh wait a sec, I don't want to do this anymore."  Nothing is quick and easy when it comes to lawyers.  It might even cost you some money.

And that's what this thread is all about: to inform people that they might be getting more than they bargained for.  Obviously, some people would LOVE any extra attention they can get, but others are really finicky about releasing personal information to the entire world.  This thread exists to protect the second group of people by giving them information that they probably didn't know, so that they don't accidentally get tangled up in all of this.