Who reads EULAs? Maybe you should

by Grant Robertson Feb 3rd 2007

Each one of us has faced a long dialog box full of legalese with the words "READ CAREFULLY" at the top. Admit it, like most of us you've shrugged and clicked "I Agree" before giving it much thought. By doing so, you've "signed" what is commonly referred to as a "clickwrap" agreement and, you'd be surprised to what you've agreed.

Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow explains in InformationWeek some of the nastiness contained in End User License Agreements and warns of a coming storm of lawsuits that may be headed our way. Cory writes in part, " If you wanted to really be careful about this stuff, you'd prohibit every employee at your office from clicking on any link, installing any program, creating accounts, or signing for parcels. You wouldn't even let employees make a run to Best Buy for some CD blanks -- have you seen the fine print on their credit-card slips?"

At the very least, I'm going to think twice before clicking "I Agree" on a document which says "company X" can delete any file they don't like on my hard drive, install spyware, restrict my usage of a device I bought and paid for, or change the terms of what I'm about to sign at any time they wish.

Tags: clickwrap, Cory Doctorow, CoryDoctorow, EULA

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Denji said 6:14PM on 2-03-2007

I use a piece of software called EULAlyzer that you guys featured in September of '05 (http://www.downloadsquad.com/2005/09/16/software-that-reads-eulas-so-you-dont-have-to/). It scans the EULAs for suspect words and points you towards them so you can look for problems before accepting it.

asi said 11:54AM on 2-04-2007

Better yet, use a software package, EULA-modder, that first modifies the text to the user's terms, before user clicks accept. Gee, I wonder if that can be legally binding?

ahoier said 11:34PM on 2-04-2007

yea, I've used EULAizer...but it just got tedious...lol. I still submitted a good amt of EULAs to their database though in my short running with it though.

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