Marvels Rivals requires creators to sign a contract that removes your right to give a negative review in order to access the playtest

simple@lemm.ee to Games@lemmy.world – 1294 points –

On today's episode of "This shouldn't be legal"...

Source: https://twitter.com/A_Seagull/status/1789468582281400792

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You are aware that first amendment protects speech from government actions/bodies only. It's not something you can use against a private business (there are other laws for discrimination.)

The point of the contract is that if one is in breach the company can sue for damages and potentially remove the offending media.

The suing process would be through a legal body such as a court system, in this case federal court since the media is on the Internet, therefore the contract doesn't hold any legal binding. No federal court would uphold a contract that violates the first amendment.

Contracts adhere to laws and rules just like any other legal document. You can't just put whatever you want into a contract and have it be binding.

Sure, but that term does not violate the first amendment since the government didn't stop you from saying it, so would hold up. You might be able to get it thrown out due to something else, you would need a lawyer for that.

That contract will have penalties for violations, and those are what you would be subject to if in violation.

That's not how that works. The contract is in and of itself a violation of the first amendment. Therefore it has no legal binding. They wouldn't be able to remove the offending media from any platform or sue for damages if someone breached the contract.

If there are internal ramifications due to a breach of contract that's something that could be handled internally, such as the content creator not being offered any review materials in the future. But a contract wouldn't be necessary for that either way.

Moreover, specifically for satire, there are whole acts in the law advocating for it. There is absolutely nothing, no clause or agreement that would ever prohibit someone from publicly satiring any given entity. Regardless of any contract.