Slate Magazine - Borat Release Terms

Link: Slate Magazine. One of the cool things about technology and the Internet is the speed with which information can travel and be discussed. The actual release used by the movie Borat, and which is being litigated now by embarrassed participants in the movie, has been published everywhere. As lawyers, we see this kind of stuff everyday, don't we? Contracts signed without being read, or without consideration for the consequences. Clients always expect us to free them from contractual promises they willingly engaged in. This standard model release contains some pretty onerous stuff, but common in the industry. My favorite is the ever present venue clause. If you want to sue us, you have to come to our jurisdiction. Who can afford that? The moral of this story is, don't sign a contract until you read it. Wish you had a nickel for every time you said that to a client?