Mike Silber - Head Legal, Liquid Telecom


Mike Silber is the Head of Legal at Liquid Telecom, based in the South African Office.

Mike also serves on the Boards of TENET, ISPA, the FTTH Council Africa and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Oh you know what? This is the third paragraph, nobody is still reading this. I bet only about five people clicked to read the bios in the first place – I may as well just say anything I like. (Mike’s page was accessed only 68 times between its creation on 7 June 2008, and its most recent update on 23 August 2016  – iWeek Webmaster)

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

By attending my presentation, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

1 UNDERTAKINGS OF THE SPEAKER

Mike Silber (hereinafter, as the context may require “I”, “me” or other applicable first person pronoun) shall (insofar as is reasonably possible) undertakes to:

1.1 provide stuff that may or may not be environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, low fat and/or banting friendly. By stuff, I refer to the awesome content, insights, revelations, pictures, videos, sounds (ummm, not sure what kind of sounds I might make…but you can be sure you can’t have them without my permission) (collectively referred to as “content”);

1.2 not bore, tire or render the attendees of the presentation (hereinafter “you”) comatose;

1.3 avoid mention of politics, religion, or other divisive issues; and

1.4 be kind to small animals.

2 UNDERTAKINGS OF THE AUDIENCE

You undertake to applaud politely and not ask me any difficult questions which would expose my lack of knowledge.

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

By attending the presentation, you (individually and collectively) acknowledge that:

3.1 the content is subject to further clarification or withdrawal at my discretion;

3.2 the content is freely transferable provided that no alteration shall be made to my stuff and that my proprietary rights are acknowledged;

3.3 the presentation of the content implies no warranty, explicit or implicit and is not intended as legal advice. If it were legal advice it would be accompanied by an invoice;

3.4 the content is revocable at my sole discretion, by way of utterance or written notice indicating that (i) oops, I made a mistake; or (ii) just kidding; or (iii) I have no freaking clue what I am talking about;

3.5 the content is warranted to perform as reasonably may be expected within the usual application of a presentation, namely going in one ear and right out of the other.

5 THIRD PARTY RIGHTS

Any references shall not imply any endorsement by or from any third party and all proprietary rights in any referenced third party names and images are hereby acknowledged.

6 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Don’t steal my stuff. My content is protected by all the freaking laws you can think of. Seriously. This means don’t use it, think of using it, or even stare at it with the intention of doing something I did not give you permission to do.

7 U MAD? GONNA LAWYER UP BRO?

I am a lawyer and I have friends who are lawyers (seriously who else would be friendly with a lawyer). A whole team of them that are ready to knife fight on a whim, but I would rather resolve this in a calm manner. So if you have a problem you will first come to me and tell me about this problem. We may talk about this problem for awhile, and if neither side is happy with the result then we can duke it out in Court. The Court must be in Johannesburg and the battle will be decided based on South African law. Any law that applies or controls this contract is South African – so I have hometown advantage! Oh, and the winner of any dispute or lawsuit is entitled to have their attorneys’ fees and costs paid for by the loser.

8 SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD….AGREEMENT

Sometimes, people mutually agree to stuff that courts just won’t uphold. That shouldn’t affect the intent of our contract, though, so you agree that if a judge declares a portion of this agreement of no effect, the rest of the agreement will stay in effect as much as is still possible without the part that the judge struck down.

9 LOUD NOISES

WE HAVE TO USE CAPS LOCK FOR THIS SECTION BECAUSE SOME DEAD GUY 100 YEARS AGO PROBABLY SAID IF WE DON’T THEN IT DOESN’T COUNT. SO WE CAN’T GUARANTEE THAT MY CONTENT WON’T BLOW YOUR MIND OR WON’T BREAK YOUR COMPUTER OR THAT YOU’LL FIND IT AMUSING OR THAT IT WILL HELP YOU MAKE MONEY. I WILL TRY MY BEST, BUT THAT’S ALL YOU GET. YOU ARE GETTING THE CONTENT “AS IS” EVEN IF IT BLOWS UP OR FRIES YOUR BRAIN. SO EVEN IF SOMETHING TERRIBLE AND CATASTROPHIC HAPPENS BECAUSE YOU LISTENED TO ME, YOU CAN’T SUE ME, OR ANYONE THAT IS CONNECTED WITH ME. SO I AM DISCLAIMING ALL WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY FOR ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING, WHETHER OR NOT I KNEW OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN PSYCHIC AND KNEW. YOU LISTENED TO ME TALK SO YOU PLAY BY MY RULES AND IF I END UP BEING RESPONSIBLE FOR SOMETHING I AM NOT GOING TO PAY YOU A CENT MORE THAN THE COST OF ADMISSION.

10 MISC THINGS

10.1 Headings to these sections are meant to be for entertainment purposes only and have no binding effect.

10.2 I can transfer my rights and obligations in this agreement whenever I want.

10.3 Just because I don’t set a pack of wild dogs (or lawyers) on you for violating any clause of this Agreement doesn’t mean I am waiving my right to enforce our Agreement, it just means I am cutting someone some slack. It doesn’t mean I will do the same for you or anyone else.

10.4 Expressio unis est exclusio alteris, bona fide, force majeure. hic haec hoc and any other Latin terms I may have forgotten are inserted here to look more impressive and confuse you.

Catch me at:

Internet Shut Downs — a Global Roadmap

Venue: Green room
Date: 4 September, 2017
Start time: 11:00

Will be speaking at:

iWeek 2017

Previously spoke at:

iWeek 2016

iWeek 2009

iWeek 2008

Company website:

www.liquidtelecom.com

Social:

LinkedIn