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Who reads EULAs? Maybe you should

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.

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