> to take his or her own life with a sword [commit seppuku] upon failure to uphold any of the pledges in this license

This is obviously a joke, not a legally binding "suicide pledge". Signing this is a culture fit test and did its job at filtering out people like this Karen.

▲

ceejayoz 5 hours ago | parent [-]

"Oh, that bit was just a joke" in a legally binding contract invites the question of what other bits were, which isn't a conversation you want to have in court.

▲

glerk 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Generally, clauses that involve illegal acts or can’t be construed in any legally feasible way are not legally binding. A pledge to commit ritual suicide is obviously not legally binding, whether you signed some piece of paper or not.

And sure, they can have that conversation in court. But my understanding is that this contract (that was never signed) is not even what the parties are arguing about in this case. It is a piece of evidence presented to discredit the Ethereum foundation and makes for a good news article.

> Fulton, who had earned a salary of $195,000 in her role at the Ethereum Foundation, sued for disability discrimination, retaliation, interference with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, unfair employment practices and related claims. Her lawsuit notes that the Ethereum Foundation “does not hire or pay its United States staff in its own name,” but instead uses employer-of-record service companies.

	▲	ceejayoz 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Generally, clauses that involve illegal acts or can’t be construed in any legally feasible way are not legally binding. A pledge to commit ritual suicide is obviously not legally binding, whether you signed some piece of paper or not. You're looking at this from the wrong direction. The suicide pledge is clearly unenforceable. "We put jokes in our contracts" invites questions about which other provisions are subtler ones.