Clever Girl, Part II

A bit more reading on Frienditto's legal policy. See my previous post. It's all so fascinating. Bear in mind that when I talk about copyright owner and archivist, I'm doing so on the hypothetical that they're two separate users.

6. Copyright infringement
The Service does not make any claim to copyright for any of the user entries submitted and will immediately remove any content with a proper request from the copyright owner. Users of the Service agree that at the time of submission they have proper permissions from the copyright owner. Frienditto does maintain copyright to all pages that it creates or generates, exclusive of the archived entry content.

Here's their statement that they will recognize an owner's copyright.

8. User Conduct
While using the Service, you agree not to engage in any criminal, threatening, harassing or indecent behavior. Violation of this clause may result in immediate termination of access.

How? How can you terminate access to someone that's completely anonymous, in the case of archiving public posts? In the case of someone who's archiving 'friend-locked' posts, you have their username and could try to blacklist them, but doing so would only be an incomplete termination of access to Frienditto, because they could still archive LiveJournal posts anonymously. Just not 'friend-locked' posts.

9. Violations and Grievances
To report any violations of this agreement or to file a grievance, please contact the administrator at legalthreats@frienditto.com. We will make every effort to get to your report or request in a timely fashion. Plz to be advised that any information sent to this email address other than legal threats will be ignored. Please do not make repeated submissions, as this will generally not expedite the handling of your report or request.

10. Correspondence with Frienditto
Should you choose to present your e-mail address, physical home address, telephone number, full name or other personally identifying information to Frienditto by any means whatsoever, we reserve the right to publish said personal information in whole or in part. Should you chose to contact any member of Frienditto.com by any communication means, Frienditto reserves the right to publish the conversation, in whole or in part, as seen fit to do so. Any and all e-mails may also be published in whole or in part. By communicating with Frienditto.com staff, you consent to said publication and acknowledge you have no expectation of privacy whatsoever under federal or state law for materials discussed and/or submitted. Legally privledged materials and communication, and/or communication concerning an active ongoing law enforcement investigation will be kept confidential as required by law.

God, I love my contracts teacher.

This, friends, is an unconscionable adhesion contract. Here, look: You can't contact Frienditto without consenting to this arrangement, so there's no real consent on your part. That's procedural unconscionability right there! And substantively, if you're reporting an infringement and requesting removal of material, you can't do so without more copyright infringement - the very problem you're contacting them trying to resolve. This policy is being used as a threat against copyright owners to keep them quiet out of fear of further infringement. In addition, there's no consideration being offered the copyright owner here - no benefit, as the infringement the owner is asking to have removed is in bad faith to begin with. Frienditto has already posited it as an obligation (and even if they didn't, it would be one, it against the law to infringe copyright); fulfilling a duty because you ask them to is not the same thing as offering an actual benefit to you.