I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advise. I will be immediately moving to pirating any Disney product that has any terms that I have to agree to. I will explain why. I consider potential legal cost of piracy to outweigh the potential cost of being a customer. Many of you may have already messed up by getting yourself a free trial of Disney+.
Quick Summary by Brave AI
This is a very important matter with serious legal consequences. There is a tiny chance that everything will be fine in the end (partly due to the outrage). __There is also a chance that this incident will set a precedent for other companies similar to selling sensitive customer data or removing the headphone jack.
Legal Overview by Louis Rossmann
Louis Rossmann is not a lawyer. He has been campaigning for right to repair for many years. He has a great deal of experience dealing with lawmakers, bureaucrats, lobbyists on top of being a proficient with technology on many levels. I recommend taking a look at his channel to get an idea. I do not support all his positions (which are at times, anti free market).
Opinion of a Licensed Attorney
The most alarming thing is that the argument was made in the first place. We have seen how the encroachment of freedom and privacy work. I only have 2 decades of experience. There are many who have been on this exact same Earth for a longer time. If you have been paying any attention, you must have the foresight to see that every set of terms and conditions we agree to have the risk of having some clauses that render individuals unable to act against various cronies that pretend to be capitalists.
Assume The Worst Unless Proven Otherwise
Even if you read the entire document of terms and conditions, it can be changed later and reading every single document and the subsequent changes is not a viable strategy. We need better systems and until that happen, we need to do what we can to keep ourselves safe.
Services as a Malicious Attack Vector
At first it was merely a case of "if it's free; you are the product". Companies realized they can go further and weaponize terms and conditions. I'm not the customer even if I pay! That is the reality I have to deal with. Those who recognized trends made very accurate predictions. Vaccines Passports are the latest conspiracy I found to become a reality.
Legal Cost of Piracy vs Cost of Blindly Signing Away Rights
This is a personal decision everyone must make for themselves. Products have gone from something to be owned to rented and now into a front to skip government tyranny and take away people's rights.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power. - Benito Mussolini (Allegedly)
I used to be against piracy with the exception of avoiding censorship, media preservation and occasions where the content itself is not monetized. Now I am making a rebellious exception against any entity that is going to weaponize terms and conditions to screw over paying customer. If I am not treated as a customer even when I am going to pay, I refuse consider any company as a legitimate seller in a free and fair market.
Rebellion Has Started With Disney
I was fortunate enough to avoid Disney+ due to the "service" not being available in my country. I do not remember all the subscriptions and apps I signed up for. Thanks to using the credit card of a parent or doing password sharing, I had unwittingly made myself significantly safe. I am open to "buy" products/services form Disney without going through malicious terms and conditions. With physical media being slowly eroded out of existence, Disney and other companies like it are turning my money away.
Share As Much As Possible
There is a chance that you will stop another person from being unable to sue Disney for the wrongful death of a loved one. I took some time to think about the stance I am taking. I stopped writing this article in the middle and took a break for few days. My thoughts have not changed. I have shared the information. The reset is upto you!