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{{trope}}
[[File:giantcontract.jpg|link=Charlie and
▲{{quote|'''Duncan:''' Ha, forget this. I didn't agree to season two.<br />
▲'''Chris:''' Actually, you did. It's called the fine print. Read it, live it, ''love'' it.<br />
'''Gwen:''' I ''hate'' the fine print! |''[[Total Drama Island]]''}}
Before signing or agreeing to something, you really should read through the contract. However, being a [[Doorstopper|doorstopping]] [[Wall of Text]], most people and characters just skip to the end and sign it, either trusting or rationalizing no one would be slimy enough to sneak in something they wouldn't have agreed to in previous talks. Oh those poor, deluded souls.
Whatever contract, [[Deal
Most stories with this plot usually center on the signer trying to find a loophole to escape the contract, or otherwise live up to the much steeper conditions in order to finally complete it and render it fulfilled. On the positive side, if the series enforces [[Laser-Guided Karma]], then you can expect the contract to get destroyed and/or overruled due to even more obscure legalese by a friendly [[Rules Lawyer]].
Tropers should rest (mostly) assured that civil code contract law has clauses against "obviously [[Egregious]]" terms written into a contract. That said, there's plenty of non-egregious ways a contract can harm
Also rest assured that in common law jurisdictions (basically in any English-speaking country outside the heavily French-influenced Quebec and Louisiana), courts will exclude anything in the fine print that the signor shouldn't expect and are generally more favorable to signors than drafters when it comes to standard form contracts. In fact, U.S. law prevents disclaimers from having any actual force in law. However, if it's not a standard form contract, expect this trope to be the case, since both parties should have been paying attention when it was written.
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In any case, one can contractually rescind any of one's legal rights except for bodily freedom. Joining the military, working for the government (FBI, CIA), or just agreeing to arbitration (giving up your right to sue in court) in a contract, are ways you can give up your rights.
In fiction, the law is pretty clear
Compare [[Unreadable Disclaimer]]. Favored by the [[Morally-Bankrupt Banker]].
{{examples}}
▲== [[Card Games]] ==
* ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'' has a whole bunch of "pay X life: do Y" cards, all of them black, and representing a [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15193 Faustian bargain]. (Note the 6 mana cost for extra evil.) Oddly, in ''Magic'', Faustian bargains with [[Evilutionary Biologist]] planeswalkers who are obvious [[Expy|expys]] for Satan are quite profitable and the only problem being that it's on the Type 1 restricted list. But look at [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19115 Carnival of Souls]. Yes, you can ''conceivably'' use it, and yes, it ''does'' get better now that manaburn doesn't exist, but half the time, you're paying 1 life to do nothing.▼
* In one [[Donald Duck|Gyro Gearloose]] story, he has invented a pair of glasses that gives the user superhuman vision. To test it, he among other things read the fine print on his insurance. It turns out the conditions when the insurance ''doesn't'' apply are so wide that he basically never can collect ("...does not apply when on foot, in a car, on a train, on a plane, in a bed, on ''rollerblades''...")
* Many ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck
** One story has this turned against him. Before going on another adventure, the nephews make Scrooge sign a contract stating he will pay them their 30 cent wages, since Scrooge has tried to jip them in the past. At the end of the story, Scrooge refuses to pay what he considers an outrageous sum; 226 dollars. The nephews reveal the fine print of the contract he signed; either pay the full amount, or eat a crateful of horse-radish!
*** And the whole problem that made Scrooge desperate enough to sign that contract was the fact that, 200 ''years'' ago, an ancestor of his signed a contract without reading the fine print. (The ancestor, a Seafoam [[McDuck]], had misplaces his spectacles - [[Don Rosa]] would later imply the other party, a [[Dangerous Names|Swindle McSue]], was responsible for the misplacing) According to that fine print, Seafoam had to deliver a case of horseradish to Jamaica or forfeit his assets to Swindle, who sabotaged the trip for that very purpose. Because Seafoam never gave a set of golden teeth, a Chisel [[Mc Sue]], last heir of the [[Mc Sue]] Clan, got a court order allowing to claim Scrooge's estates minus an old set of clothes. Fortunately, even that court order had a fine print, which Scrooge read. It stated Chisel couldn't take possession for 30 days and even then only if Scrooge failed to fulfill the terms of the original contract. Before becoming wealthy, Scrooge sold the aforementioned teeth to buy a prospector's outfit, making it so he couldn't fulfill by any means other than recovering the case of horseradish and delivering it to Jamaica.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Willy Wonka
** For bonus points, most of the fine print was in Latin!
* In the ''[[Bedazzled]]'' remake, Brendan Fraser's character [[Deal
* A variation on this appears in ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause]]'', where the border on Santa's business card is revealed to consist of a contract written in microscopic print, the general gist of which is that protagonist Scott Calvin is now Santa Claus, whether he likes it or not. And then in the sequel, an even ''more'' microscopic clause reveals that he has to get married or he'll lose his powers.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[
* The first ''[[
* In one ''[[Star Trek]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] novels, [[Creator's Pet|Wesley Crusher]] ends up selling himself into slavery by signing a Ferengi contract without reading. He then sneaks into his owner's office and reads it, although it's written in barely understandable Legalese. The first clause of the contract actually forbids Wesley from reading it. He's afraid to run away, as that would be a contract violation, which is the highest crime among the Ferengi.
* In one of [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'' novels, the main character is forced to do something he's against, but his boss insists it's in his contract. In a slight subversion, James actually [[Genre Savvy|read the entire thing]]. The boss then points to a smudge at the end and uses a microscope to show him that it's actually an extra clause written in ''very'' fine print.
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* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''The Man Who Sold the Moon'', Delos D. Harriman, "the last of the Robber Barons", mentions that the roadways he owns that are used by most of the population to commute and move goods have small print on the ticket that says that the company will only "attempt" to get them or their goods to their destination and if the company fails it is only liable to refund the price of the ticket. Using the roadway means agreeing with this. Harriman says he got idea when he worked as a clerk for the Western Union telegram service. By signing the front of a telegram form most people didn't realize they were agreeing to all the small print listed on the back of the form. Harriman read the back in his free time on the job and admired it.
== [[Live-
* In one episode of ''[[Eerie, Indiana]]'', Marshall and Simon review the credit-card contracts offered by a strange visitor. What looks like an ink smudge at the end of the contract turns out to be its fine print when viewed under a microscope, revealing that the contracts are actually [[Deal
* Peter in ''[[The Monkees]]'' episode "Dance, Monkee, Dance" is tricked into signing a lifetime contract at a dance studio after winning a free dance lesson.
* In Brazilian show ''Caça Talentos'', before signing with a network, the owner of a talent agency utilized a magnifying glass to search for loopholes. When the network owner decided to end the contract, he utilized a loophole in letters so small a small telescope was used.
* ''[[El Chavo
* In the first season of the Japanese [[Dorama]] ''[[Jin (TV)|Jin]]'', Ryoma, desperately seeking money to fund Jin's penicillin production, takes a loan from someone who is essentially a [[Con Man]]; said con man promises a repayment period of seven years, but actually writes seven ''days'' into the contract. A week later, he tries to take control of the penicillin factory.
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'' lore, the Ferengi 8th Rule of acquisition is "Small Print Leads to Large Risk".
== [[Music]] ==
* The [[Trans-Siberian Orchestra]] story "Beethoven's Last Night" ends with Beethoven selling the rights to his Tenth Symphony to the Devil, in order to rescue the soul of a homeless girl. When the Devil triumphantly tries to destroy the symphony, he finds he can't; because of the way Fate worded the contract, the Devil actually purchased the Tenth Symphony of Beethoven's older brother, also named Ludwig, who died young.
* [[Tom Waits]]' song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTdScE3Rqh8 "Step Right Up"] is composed of dozens of random advertising pitches all blended together, and the final lines (other than the repetition of the title) are a Biblically-themed warning about just how trustworthy the pitches are:
{{quote|''The large print giveth,''
''And the small print taketh away.''}}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In some versions of
▲* ''[[Magic:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Guitar Hero]] 3'' has the band firing Lou as their manager, only to find the very small print at the bottom of their contract says "Your soul is mine". Next stop: Lou's Inferno.
* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]] Mask of the Betrayer'', the player can help a wizard who made a contract with a devil without reading it. One possible response to learning that:
{{quote|
** {{spoiler|It turns out the fine print works both ways. Interpreting a wish to make someone disappear as a command to kill them counts as forcing the signer to fulfill the "singee must kill someone" term of the contract.}}
* Used in [[Descent]] 2 to send the material defender on yet another suicide mission, while not paying him yet.
{{quote|
'''Material Defender:''' Dravis, you son of a …
'''Dravis:''' If you choose to decline further service, we may consider you in default of your contract, and your fee may be suspended, pending litigation. Good luck, Material Defender. Dravis out. }}
* ''[[Whacked]]'' puts an odd spin on the [[Deal with the Devil]] theme. While Van - the demonic host of the eponymous [[Deadly Game]] - assures the network it is impossible for anyone to win the game, he is completely unprepared when someone (whoever the player is using) actually does, and when he tries to weasel out of giving that player the reward, it seems the winner was [[Genre Savvy]] enough to have ''memorized'' the initial contract they signed, meaning this is a case where [[The Devil Is a Loser|the Devil himself is done in by the contract's fine print]] .
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/16/ This] ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' strip.
* Exploiting others through sneakily-worded contracts is a favorite tactic of Thief from ''
* Marth in one ''[[Awkward Zombie]]'' strip actually attempts to subvert this, though Master Hand [[Brainwashed|had other ideas]].
* [http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/1128 This] ''[[Luke Surl]]'' strip: "[[Deal
* In ''[[
{{quote|
** Also this earlier strip: [
{{quote|
* ''[[The Noob]]'' with ClicheQuest (TM) [http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=392 beta testers]:
{{quote|
'''Designer''': Well... testers kept blabbing on forums and posting screenshots... Nobody bothered to read the non-disclosure agreement before they signed it.
'''Designer''': So we've added this paragraph in small script.
'''Boss''': They authorize us to chain them in the basement?!?
'''Designer''': Yes... We've redefined "closed beta".
}}
* ''[[Nerf Now]]'' uses it to provide fanservice [http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/1191 here]. It's section [[Rule 34|#34]], of course. Alas, [[Not in My Contract|not everything is in the contract]].
* ''[[Freefall]]'' has EULA [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2900/fc02870.htm purposefully made too large to read in a single human lifetime].
== [[Web
* Before signing the contract with [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica|Kyubey]] be sure to [http://psyconorikan.deviantart.com/art/Puella-Magi-Contract-209370774 read the fine print]
* Used at the start of this [http://xninjared.deviantart.com/art/Alan-Wake-Meme-197192094 Meme].
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* The Halloween TV special ''[[The Devil and Daniel Mouse]]'' features a scene where a young singer ''tries'' to read all the fine print in the contract she's being offered by an [[Louis Cypher|evil record executive]], but the contract-paper just keeps getting longer and longer and longer..
* As quoted above, Chris Mclean from ''[[Total Drama Island]]'' will often use the fine print of his contracts to smuggle his way into getting what he wants.
** The [[Fanfic]] ''[[
* Also played with in ''[[The Fairly
* Subverted in ''[[Regular Show]]'': Coffee and his friend ask Mordecai and Rigby to sign a contract which asked that Mordecai and Rigby buy tickets to a concert for all four of them in exchange for Coffee's coffee. Rigby signs it after barely even looking at it, but it doesn't matter whether or not he read it because the contract was unable to be understood. It was [[Pokémon-Speak|the word "coffee" written over and over again]], and a line at the bottom.
* In ''[[South Park]]'', episode "HUMANCENTiPAD," Kyle is apparently the only kid in South Park that doesn't read EULAs:
{{quote|
* This was essential to the climax of the [[Futurama]] episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings".
* Played with in an episode of the 80s cartoon of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]''. While in Japan, Alvin signs himself and his brothers up to perform in kabuki theater, not realizing that this means they'll have to dress like women. Simon demands to know why Alvin didn't read the contract.
{{quote|
* ''[[Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi]]'': Kaz added several loopholes in the contract he had the girls sign when he became their manager. Some of them were in ''Russian''.
* ''[[The Mask (
* In one episode of ''[[Atomic Betty]]'', Sparky is a contestant in a game show that does ''not'' look safe, and the disclosure form seems to confirm it:
{{quote|'''Sparky:''' In case of... Does that say “death”? Why am I signing this?
'''Minimus:''' Oh, it just prevents you from suing the producers in case of… you know, shortness of breath, hair loss, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking| accidental decapitation, falling from great heights…]]
'''Betty:''' Does that happen often??
''(Turns around to see someone screaming while falling from above.)''
'''Minimus:''' Er, [[Bad Liar|once in a while...]]}}
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Something of a subversion of this is common in online auction sites, such as eBay where a seller will post an item for sale, such as the box that a PSP came in and clearly label the sale as "just the box." Despite the clear and repeated disclaimer, such as "this is just for the box it came in, PSP not included," several people will bid the price up and purchase the empty box, then are disappointed when the box arrives without a PSP in it.
** It's possible that people bidding on such items have their blinders on. But if you think about it, [[Conviction
*** In many collecting communities, people deliberately ''will'' buy an empty box - for example, someone may own a near-Mint Generation 1 [[Transformers|Optimus Prime]] but not the box. So he buys the box online to display in a fancy case behind the figure.
* Certain offers found on [[
** The same ads appear on television as well, usually for a horoscope, ringtone, or daily joke. The catch being is that they bill your phone bill directly either weekly or monthly if you don't request them to stop after you get your "free" one *and* they sell your number and can telemarket you for up to six months without violating the Do Not Call registry.
* Usually more in point: EULAs (End-User License Agreement. Who reads all of those?!)
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** EULAs aren't really fine print, though; everything is written in the same font size. The reason for this is in most modern countries, putting anything important in fine print is a bad idea. Attempts to hide important clauses show bad faith, usually nullifying the contract if it harms the signer, but still valid if it harms the person who wrote it! Needless to say, savvy contract writers find other ways to hide the nasty.
* In German contract law, there is a special section for "general terms and conditions" of purchase contracts, which are predefined by the seller and not negotiable, like store policies or the EULA of software. As it is not expected that customers understand or even read such contracts, or are even aware that they exist when they buy something in a store, the most important part of the law makes any terms or conditions that are "unexpected" in such a contract null and void. To discourage businesses from trying to sneak unexpected terms into a contract and hope most customers won't notice, the invalid paragraph is not replaced by the next best thing they are legally allowed to put into a contract, but by the absolute legal minimum which is usually highly benefical to the customer.
* I do believe that there has been at least one case, when the fine print got a company into legal
* [[Rule of Funny|Funny]] or strange cases involving odd uses of fine print show up all the time in contract law classes. One case involved a company who included the words (paraphrased) 'Congratulations! If you read this you are eligible for a bonus! Just send your email to us!' in the middle of one of their online agreement contracts; a couple of people did so, and it turned out the company was serious, as they ''actually did receive free money out of it''.
** Another UK case involves GameStation, where, for an April Fool's joke, they included a clause in the contract for buying one of those games claiming that by agreeing to this EULA, you agree to surrender your soul to GameStation, all written in completely straight-faced legalese. There was an option to proceed without relinquishing your soul, and the few that chose this option (and therefore had read the terms thoroughly) received a £5 GBP voucher.
** The iTunes EULA contains a line which reads: ''You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, '''the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons'''.''
* For two weeks in 2017, Manchester-based wifi company Purple's TOS slipped in a “community service clause” legally binding users to 1000 hours cleaning toilets at festivals, scraping chewing gum off the streets and “manually relieving sewer blockages”.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/14/wifi-terms-and-conditions-thousands-sign-up-clean-sewage-did-not-read-small-print</ref> Similarly, in 2014, cybersecurity firm F-Secure offered a London wifi hotspot that anyone could use – in exchange for their firstborn child. Evidently no one reads this stuff.
* A famous one, in [[Van Halen]]'s [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/van-halens-legendary-mms-rider standard contract with venues], was that a bowl of M&Ms be placed in the green room, with all the brown ones (or some such) taken out. Long assumed to be mere rockstar nitpicking, [[David Lee Roth]]'s autobiography revealed that this seemingly stupid clause, called in the business a "contract rider," is in fact a ''[[Secret Test of Character|safety precaution]]'': Van Halen was the first act to bring big, arena-style acts to second- and third-tier markets, and most of the actual contract had to deal with the arrangement of large amounts of heavy and dangerous equipment. If the equipment wasn't arranged exactly as instructed in the contract, it could fall or explode or catch fire or ''something'', and seriously injure or even ''kill'' someone (which nobody wanted). Therefore, they include the rider about the bowl of M&Ms: if the bowl doesn't show up, or if it shows up, and there are brown M&Ms in there, it's a sign that the venue managers didn't [[Read the Fine Print]], and may have arranged the equipment wrong, meaning that Van Halen could just up and leave if it saw fit, on easy-to-prove grounds of breach of contract.▼
* [[Wikia]] placed a disclaimer "Community content is available under [https://www.fandom.com/licensing CC-BY-NC] unless otherwise noted" on the front page of [[Star Trek]] fan wiki memory-alpha.org; the link points not to a legit copy of the Creative Commons NonCommercial-Attribution licence, but to a fandom.com page on which Wikia contracts itself out of the non-commercial term.
▲* A famous one, in [[Van Halen]]'s [http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/van-halens-legendary-mms-rider standard contract with venues], was that a bowl of M&Ms be placed in the green room, with all the brown ones (or some such) taken out. Long assumed to be mere rockstar nitpicking, [[David Lee Roth]]'s autobiography revealed that this seemingly stupid clause, called in the business a "contract rider," is in fact a ''[[Secret Test of Character|safety precaution]]'': Van Halen was the first act to bring big, arena-style acts to second- and third-tier markets, and most of the actual contract had to deal with the arrangement of large amounts of heavy and dangerous equipment. If the equipment wasn't arranged exactly as instructed in the contract, it could fall or explode or catch fire or ''something'', and seriously injure or even ''kill'' someone (which nobody wanted). Therefore, they include the rider about the bowl of M&Ms: if the bowl doesn't show up, or if it shows up, and there are brown M&Ms in there, it's a sign that the venue managers didn't
* Zeca Pagodinho once signed a contract to become spokesman to a beer brand named "Nova Schin". He later claimed the clause he broke wasn't verbally agreed on and that he signed the contract without reading because he trusted them. A good deal of people in Brazil (the country where it happened) believes him to be either stupid or a liar.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Artistic License Law]]
[[Category:Plots]]
▲[[Category:Read the Fine Print]]
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