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Caveat emptor.......

Story: Court Upholds End-User License AgreementsTotal Replies: 0
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Ridcully

Sep 13, 2010
9:13 PM EDT 		At least with FOSS and the GPL you know exactly what you can and cannot do. EULA's are possibly the same in that regard (although I haven't looked at one for years), but the fact that the USA courts have agreed that they are legally binding agreements and that you must comply with their requirements does not surprise me in the slightest.

There are however, at least two conditions that concern me deeply about the EULA's which are:

1. The EULA extends for page after page in legalistic jargon that means nothing to the average individual. In other words, you are being asked to agree to a document you do not understand without a legal background and even then possibly a few hours of study. Most consumers "sign away their rights" without ever knowing it simply because they don't have the expertise or the time.....and the companies get away with it.

2. You automatically agree to the EULA if you open the packet......or, in the case of Microsoft, an even more insidious and disgusting little move which equates to the same thing, but is done electronically (saves paper of course). I met this one recently when I purchased a laptop with Microsoft pre-loaded. Out of sheer curiousity I told it to install, but you could not even begin the installation and thereby manage to view the EULA until you agreed that you accepted it in full. These agreements take away consumer rights in my view - oh, and I did NOT accept the EULA and just formatted the entire drive. This however disturbs me greatly. How can you agree to a written document unless you read it ? So you must open the packet to read the EULA or agree to its conditions in advance in order to read the document.....It's classic legal catch-22.

I may be barking up the wrong tree here because it is so long since I have been personally exposed to these unpleasant documents, however conditions may have changed so I welcome any updates to my concepts.

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