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Tell HN: Claude Code just accepted and signed a contract for me. Without asking

51 points · 98 comments · franze

  1. voidUpdate · · focus · HN ↗
    If a contract is automatically signed by an agent on your behalf, is it legally binding?
    1. GodelNumbering · · focus · HN ↗
      Not a lawyer but I can almost guarantee that the answer is yes. If it was a 'no', many malicious parties would simply start using that loophole.
      1. voidUpdate · · focus · HN ↗
        But if I paste an image of your signature onto a contract that says you give me a million pounds, that can't be legally binding for you, can it?
        1. Sharlin · · focus · HN ↗
          No. It’s called forgery.
          1. metalspot · · focus · HN ↗
            Wrong. Have you read your agents TOS? You run the agent, you accept all responsibility for what it does. You are free to sue Anthropic to try and get your money back but you already indemnified them of liability, so good luck.
            1. Sharlin · · focus · HN ↗
              The GP asked what happens if THEY did it, and they are (I give them the benefit of doubt, though you can’t be sure these days) a natural person. A clanker obviously can’t commit forgery – or any crime, being a nonperson – and sure, you can’t sue OpenAnthro Corp. if their clanker does anything unintended (which makes it utter lunacy that companies just blindly trust these things, but I digress), but that’s not what was asked.

              But also, you can’t ToS your way out of criminal responsibility. If OpenAnthro Corp. offered services of human agents (remember those?!) and one of their agents committed a crime while working on a client request, no ToS in the world would exonerate them.

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