For subscriptions, I highly recommend using disposable cards like Privacy.com (no affiliation, just a customer). If I want to try out Prime, or Starz, or a "free until..." promotional offer, I just spin up a card. It's connected to my bank account, locked to that single merchant, and they can't charge more than whatever spending limit I put on that card. Honestly, I don't always even sign in to a service to cancel, it's much easier to just pause or delete a card, and then they can't charge you anymore. It's free for us because they collect a small portion of the transaction amount (like Visa, PayPal, etc)...
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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Shooting plainclothes cops that execute a no-knock warrant on your home.
Seriously.
All states--ALL states--have a castle doctrine that allows you to use lethal defense to protect yourself inside your home. A no-knock warrant being executed by cops out of uniform means that you have a reasonable belief that your home is being invaded, and that your life is at immediate risk. Now, admittedly, you probably aren't going to survive that exchange of gunfire. But the state is going to have a really hard time charging you with shooting at/killing a cop if you do.
About dozen States do NOT have a castle doctrine, and have duty to retreat laws instead.
No, castle doctrine exists in all states. You do not have a duty to retreat when it's inside your own home in almost all cases.
A free trial automatically rolling into a paid subscription.
police being able to lie to you
I think in the eu we have some legislation about it. I have the feeling of reading about a law like that before. Subscription buttons needing to be as clear as unsubscribe.
Capitalism
I don't know how this works in the US, but where I live after a year subscription (let's say for your internet provider or something). They can only renew per month. So if the year subscription is over you can cancel any service every month and they can't hit you with any fees.
Back in the day if you'd forgot to cancel your plan you'd be stuck with them for another year. It sucked!
Dating sites besieging their users with bots and fake profiles.
The FTC under Biden was actually craking down on that. It was called the "Click to Cancel" rule, but that was literally a month before the election. :/
Lina Khan was a perhaps once in a lifetime bureaucrat doing good for the people at a rapid pace on normal government timelines and now she’ll probably never get that job or a better one again.
In the US, unsubscribing from email spam is legally required to be easy under the CAN-SPAM act. For paid subscription services, I believe they also are required to be as easy to leave as they are to join in the EU and California.
Somewhat related, many dark patterns are treated like fraud.
the CAN-SPAM act
I once wrote a community college paper for my friend in exchange for some work on my car. He had to write a paper on the CAN-SPAM act.
I did the assignment, covered all the requirements, explained it and whatnot. I then wrote a SECOND paper, appended to the end of the first. This second paper also met the length requirements, but was a parody. About the Hormel meat product, Spam. In cans. Can-Spam. I was very proud of it. It was funny.
I kept asking my friend if he ever got feedback from the professor. He never did. It was then that I learned professors often don’t read papers like this, they just assign them to get students to read and practice writing. It made me sad.
all i’m going to say is whatever shit adobe is pulling because i could yap about this forever with anyone
Which particular part? I'm interested and somewhat outside of the situation.
the fact that they decided to charge $90 a month and $65 to cancel is truly evil
Companies changing the terms of the contract on you.
Yes, but - in many of those contracts (particularly end-user license agreements) you agreed to them changing the terms of the contract. You also have an "out" - not using the product any more.
You're right though: it's slimy. Anything slimy thing can be put into a contract!
Source: I'm not a lawyer, but worked in an office with a lot of them, and worked with software license agreements in particular.
I'm so curious now. Do you know how those apply? I mean, can they change the terms on you without notice or is that notice legally required? And say they want to feed all your data of however many years to AI. If you accidentally use it once, do they get permission for everything? What if you agree only because you want to delete your data?
I have so many questions. lol
You usually get an email saying something is changing. Problem is, you've already paid and if it's a material change, now you have to agree to continue using your property. Sometimes you don't get a notice and it's a "software update" that now pushes ads onto a product you bought and are now shit outta luck since you can't return it. Samsung and Roku are bad for this.
Samsung and Roku are bad for this.
You're buying the hardware; they provide the software as a service. Oh, sure, no agreeing to a unilateral change of conditions on the software means that your hardware is rendered worthless, but still... And yeah, that's pretty much the way that actually works.
IP law can start getting pretty strange.
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