See also: http://underlore.com/microsoft-jumps-on-the-rights-denial-steam-bandwagon/

Got this in email just now.

 
Resolution of Disputes

We have revamped our dispute resolution process by introducing arbitration provisions that will enable users throughout the world to resolve disputes they may have with Evernote more expeditiously and less expensively.

Using arbitration to resolve claims means that users will not be required to travel to California (or Switzerland, for Evernote GmbH users) to file a lawsuit and appear in court and, if the amount of the claim is less than US$10,000, the arbitration may even be done over the phone or internet, depending upon the circumstances. In an effort to resolve all disputes promptly, we are also including a provision that requires both parties to use good faith to initiate the arbitration proceeding within 30 days, with a mutually acceptable arbitrator managing the process.

Our changes will provide users outside the US an option to have their dispute resolved through arbitration, but under a special US law, we are requiring users in the US to use binding arbitration as the exclusive means for resolving disputes and to agree that such claims will be resolved only between them and Evernote (prohibiting participation in class actions or similar representative actions).

We feel strongly that requiring arbitration of disputes on an individual basis will enhance our ability to work with our users to resolve disputes, while ensuring that an individual user maintains control of the issue raised and resolution desired – and that this will happen much more quickly than the long months or years that class action matters typically require. Because we are requiring arbitration for US users (and others subject to the US Federal Arbitration Act), we will pay the arbitration-related fees for all claims up to US$10,000 and even in cases involving more than that amount if those fees would be prohibitive compared to litigation costs, unless, in either case, the claim asserted is determined by the arbitrator to be frivolous. We appreciate that this is a significant change, so we will permit existing Evernote users who do not agree with this change to “opt-out” of the arbitration agreement by notifying us via the methods described in our Terms within 30 days of December 4, 2012 (the effective date of our new Terms).

At least they include an opt out sort of… By closing your account >.>

Or of course by jumping through hoops.

https://evernote.com/legal/tos.php

In order to do so, you must send a written notice to us at Evernote Corporation’s address provided above that contains the following: (i) the statement “I do not agree to the Arbitration Agreement” and (ii) your username and email address associated with the Evernote account(s) to which the opt-out shall apply. You must sign the opt-out notice and ensure it is delivered to us no later than 30 days after the Effective Date posted at the top of these Terms for it to be effective. This procedure is the only way you can opt-out of the Arbitration Agreement. If you opt-out of the Arbitration Agreement, the rest of these Terms shall continue to apply, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution Process. In addition, opting out of the Arbitration Agreement has no effect on any previous or future arbitration agreement that you may have with us.

“We feel strongly that requiring arbitration of disputes on an individual basis will enhance our…” Immunity to legal recourse. Because what American company wants to be required to obey the law anyhow right?

Update:
I submitted this ticket to support.

http://underlore.com/evernote-latest-addition-to-the-class-action-band-wagon/

https://evernote.com/legal/tos.php

“This procedure is the only way you can opt-out of the Arbitration Agreement.”

Wow, that’s not slimy or anything.

So I can delete my account or anything else online but if it comes to protecting my right to legal recourse suddenly it’s the pony express days.

Fine, delete my account, I’ve already deleted my content.

I’ll be sure to tell all my clients and readers to avoid your “service” like the plague.

Since it’s Thanksgiving I’ll say something to you both that I think pretty frequently, but is just kind of hard to work into normal conversation.

Thanks for being literally the best parents I have ever known. I mean that objectively. No other parents have demonstrated such consistent respect, compassion, and ethical fiber. You both have broken a cycle at a personal level that has plagued mankind at a social level since we developed farming. While others are slaves to their past, you two have largely risen above it, and in so doing give me great hope for my own future and my own abilities to transcend such things given sufficient time.

You are both appreciated to a degree that is nearly impossible to express but I feel like now is a good time to make the attempt. Indeed if my actions were to reflect this level of appreciation I would no doubt appear quite (even more so) insane.

Your intentions are the very model of ethical quality. My ethics are as I have said many times my best feature and I copied them wholesale from you both. Though I developed and carried them to logical places you did/have not by applying them to global issues, they are still regardless of that extra development in every sense that matters, yours. They are the greatest gift it is humanly possible to give, and though agencies of our culture seek to ruthlessly and often successfully exploit them for my loss and their gain, I would die before giving them up.

They have provided a sense of self worth and identity that have made it demonstrable objectively if we share axioms that the world is definitively an ever so slightly better place for having had me in it. The value of such a gift, of being able to say such a thing with absolute conviction, is beyond quantification.

And this is but the capitol city of an entire planet of actions worthy of praise and expressions of gratitude. Your unflinching tolerance of me and who I am provides a model for the very apex of logical compassion. In one of life’s more benevolent paradoxes and ironies it is this very tolerance that has made me struggle so hard to be worthy of it. It is the precise opposite of bribery and coercion, and the mechanisms that allow it to function have provided for me a template upon which to build a world view that could well save humanity from extinction if anyone would listen.

But even if they don’t, I know these things down to my marrow and can prove almost all of them. That too is a gift directly from the both of you.

Every compliment I am given, is in truth yours, every improvement I have made to the lives of those around me, is yours. Conversely my flaws and the minor harms I have done are mine alone and stem only from my own errors or weaknesses, which again thanks to you I can gracefully accept, admit, and endeavor to correct.

I love you both literally more than humanity’s future, literally more than my own oxygen supply.

The world deserves to hear more from the both of you, indeed it NEEDS to hear more from you. Echoing the greatness of your intentions is the core of my life’s work, and I can’t help but feel like I am a poor substitute indeed. But such is your choice and for me it only makes this all the more profound because if humanity does ever listen they will wrongly give me the credit for it, yet another gift from you to me of superlative value.

Please accept my sincerest thanks on this Thanksgiving.

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