Spiders Can Form Contracts Too!

• Posted by Geoffrey G. Gussis on May 27th, 2005


• Filed in Helpful Websites/Blogs, IT/Software/Internet, Intellectual Property

Alright - the title is a bit misleading.  We’re not talking about actual spiders but instead are referring to automated software robots that "crawl" around the web.  The news tidbit is provided by Vince Polley, who publishes the excellent "MIRLN", which stands for Miscellaneous IT Related Legal News, a free monthly
e-newsletter by the Cyberspace Law Committee of the American Bar
Association. Earlier editions, and email delivery subscription information, are available as well.

Here is but one of the interesting tidbits in a recent newsletter:

"SPIDERS CAN ENTER CONTRACTS TOO! (Steptoe & Johnson’s E-Commerce
Law Week, 28 April 2005) — It wouldn’t be unheard-of for a web surfer
to accept the terms of a Terms of Use or “click-through” agreement
without actually reading it … and then for a court to hold him to the
terms of that agreement. So is there a difference if his automated
software tool does the “clicking” — also without actually reading the
agreement? Not according to the US District Court for the Northern
District of California. In Cairo, Inc. v. CrossMedia Services, Inc.,
the court held that automated software tools called “spiders” can
legally consent to the terms of use or terms of service agreements on
websites they visit — thereby committing their operators to the terms
of those agreements and subjecting them to liability for violations.
(The case breaks new legal ground, but the court designates its opinion
as “unpublished,” which usually means that the ruling has little or no
precedential impact. In this case, it may mean that the court lacks
confidence in its judgment — or simply that no one has yet asked the
court to publish the opinion.)"

Enjoy!