26 May
2004
26 May
'04
4:34 a.m.
I don't know any business that would say "if
we sue you, we'll do
you a favor and sue in your jurisdiction to make things easy for
you".
This is why legal systems include rules governing jurisdiction.
Your T&C attempt to brush aside those rules, which evolved for very
good reason; I consider that unacceptable. Look, we're not going to go around drafting
personal editions of the
T&C for each user that objects to one thing or another. Either you
use the VCM or not.
Of course. I don't expect you to do an individual version for me. If
you agreed with my points, you'd change your T&C for everyone, and you
would have already done so.
The point this fragment spun off from is part of answering the question
of why I don't/won't use the VCM, which is after all where this whole
thread started.
So you're saying if someone needs to sue you
because you never sent
them what they paid you for, they can put down "der Mouse" as the
defendant?
In a common-law jurisdiction, yes, I suspect they could, especially
when the matter in question bore principally on my electronic identity.
As far as I know that's never been tested, though I suspect (again,
only "suspect") that not excessively dissimilar things have been done
with other people involved.
No, I'm not sliding from one thing to another.
I'm pointing out the
reality of the matter. Using an alias is hiding your identity.
Certainly. That's why I refuse to use my muggle identity when dealing
online, because there, it _is_ an alias, and _would_ be hiding my
identity.
When I sent you that box of hardware, why did you give
me your real
name? Can't Fedex deliver boxes to "der Mouse"?
Well, aside from the question-begging inherent in your calling it my
"real name"-- I did it partly because FedEx is not an online entity (in
this respect, ie, in the interaction between them and me that this
would provoke) and thus the best name for me _for them_ is the one
you're calling my "real name". (Even with that, I think you don't have
my "real name", only another of my "alias"es, though you can probably
infer my "real name" from it.) I did it partly because I expected you
to be uncomfortable with asking FedEx to deliver to Mouse. I did it
partly because I expected them to be uncomfortable with it too. I did
it partly because I expected it to smooth things over at Customs
clearance. All of these added up to enough to overcome my inherent
resistance to crossing identities between personas.
I don't like mixing the two identities, but to some degree it becomes
inevitable when mixing worlds - as when schlepping computer hardware
around, especially across international borders.
- They require
you to agree to California legal jurisdiction
Standard. - It requires
that I use my full legal name.
My Pendantic-O-Meter is pinned. You admit that
it's the name you
use "in computer circles", so by your own words it is therefore a
nickname. Why do you waste so much time quibbling over VCM terms
& conditions
when much more important battles are to be won against the bank? Is
it because you know the bank would not give you an account if you
tried to argue over their T&C?
No; it's because Quebec is a civil-code jurisdiction, and the naming
laws in effect here require that one have exactly one legal name - and
for individual accounts, there are sound reasons (such as reporting
interest to Revenue Canada Taxation or whatever they call themselves
this week) for requiring my legal name on the account. If I had gone
to the trouble to change my name legally, yes, I would expect them to
accept it. Even now, I may well be able to get an account in the Mouse
name, as long as I give them my legal name for their records; I haven't
tried, because that's not a sphere in which it's especially important
to me to use the Mouse identity.
It is rather arrogant of you to tell me that the "battle" "against"
the
bank is more important than "quibbling" over the VCM's T&C; it is not
for you to tell me what's more important to me than what else, and I
disagree with it in so many other ways that if I try to deal with them
all this message will be twice the size it is already. (I'll be happy
to do so, offlist, with anyone who's interested.)
and frankly having to argue this point with you is
tedious.
You don't have to argue it. In fact, I see little point; [...]