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Elon Musk’s legal case against OpenAI is hilariously bad (www.theverge.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Yes, I know it's a Verge link, but I found the explanation of the legal failings quite funny, and I think it's "important" we keep track of which obscenely rich people are mad at each other so we can choose which of their kingdoms to be serfs in.

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[–] 1 point 2 years ago (6 children)

Uhhh. I mean sure he’s not going to get anywhere with this lawsuit, but contracts don’t have to even be written down to be valid legal things. The whole verge article is a mess honestly… https://www.lawdepot.com/resources/business-articles/are-verbal-contracts-legally-binding/

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Did you read the sentence directly after? They never claimed that non-written contracts don't exist, they said they are very hard to uphold in court, which is perfectly true:

    proving that an unwritten contract exists, what its terms are, and if they are enforceable is extraordinarily difficult, and courts do not like doing it, especially for ultra-sophisticated parties with a long history of dealing.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Saying “they need to be written down” and then immediately negating that point is absolutely terrible writing. And even a casual contract, like OpenAI’s where they literally have stated in writing for years what their “contract” is, would not be hard to understand.

    Musk is a moron and this is clearly a ploy to gain some sort of control over OpenAI, but OpenAI is breaking what they said their goal was. I know that doesn’t mean there’s a contract there, but it has been written down numerous times what he’s claiming “the contract” is.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago*

    Most importantly, contracts need to be written down — proving that an unwritten contract exists, what its terms are, and if they are enforceable is extraordinarily difficult, and courts do not like doing it, especially for ultra-sophisticated parties with a long history of dealing.

    this isn't negating the point, it's explaining the point: they need to be written down, here's why. it's like saying someone needs to train for a marathon to run one, because otherwise it will be very hard to avoid muscle damage. there's no logical necessity but it makes sense as a practical claim

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