Manufacturers routinely make unreasonable demands on e-commerce websites to do more to police against counterfeits.

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Consumer groups use the law too, and so do businesses fighting unreasonable tax demands.

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"Negotiations are ongoing, but Fox's current demands are unreasonable and excessive, especially in this economic climate, " said Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff.

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None of these demands were unreasonable.

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Then there is the irrepressible Miss Jayalalitha, whose demands have ranged from the unreasonable (shifting the court that would try her for corruption) to the impossible (dismissing the government of her home state, Tamil Nadu).

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"We have absolutely no problem compensating Viacom fairly, but they have now knowingly put our customers in the unreasonable position of either accepting their extravagant financial demands or losing some of their favorite TV shows, " said Chang.

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The military tried to negotiate with the militants, but their demands to release militants held prisoner in Algeria were deemed unreasonable, leading to intervention by special forces troops backed by the Algerian Air Force, Sallal said.

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