It's not just the length of the initial contract, it's the lack of a sane "diff" system.
Even if someone is willing and able to read a 44 page contract the first time, the next time version 1.0.1 of something comes out you are generally given a 44.5 page contract to re-agree to. "Somewhere" in there, they changed something; good luck figuring it out. So even if the version you read gave you permission to sue, the amendment that you clicked-through-in-agreement later may have given away that right (an amendment they probably made because somebody sued them).
We solved this type of thing years ago, the solution just hasn't made its way into legalese: use revision control. I wish that large documents were:
- Publicly revision-controlled with a system that has clients everyone can easily use (i.e. no arcane commands, and push-buttons for the most common things like "compare to last version").
- Public accountability for the entire revision history of every single line. If somebody wants to add [Horrible Clause A] two months after I first signed it, then I get to know exactly who made the change and if I want to I can take a look at other changes they've made to other documents.
Even if someone is willing and able to read a 44 page contract the first time, the next time version 1.0.1 of something comes out you are generally given a 44.5 page contract to re-agree to. "Somewhere" in there, they changed something; good luck figuring it out. So even if the version you read gave you permission to sue, the amendment that you clicked-through-in-agreement later may have given away that right (an amendment they probably made because somebody sued them).
We solved this type of thing years ago, the solution just hasn't made its way into legalese: use revision control. I wish that large documents were:
- Publicly revision-controlled with a system that has clients everyone can easily use (i.e. no arcane commands, and push-buttons for the most common things like "compare to last version").
- Public accountability for the entire revision history of every single line. If somebody wants to add [Horrible Clause A] two months after I first signed it, then I get to know exactly who made the change and if I want to I can take a look at other changes they've made to other documents.