EULAs Are Dangerous !!!
p2pnet.net News:- Overbroad EULAs are one of the greatest threats to consumer rights in the high tech industry, says the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Annalee Newitz in her Dangerous Terms – A User’s Guide to EULAs white paper.
And on of the reasons EULAs (end user license agreements) are so dangerous is because they’re the fine print – the stuff one hardly ever reads.
Not true, you say? These days, people read everything ….
Well, PC Pitstop would beg to differ and to drive the point home, wrote a clause into one of its own EULAs promising a “consideration” including money to anyone who read it.
All they had to do then was reply via an email address in the EULA.
But, “After four months and more than 3,000 downloads, one person finally wrote in,” says PC Pitstop. “That person, by the way, got a check for $1,000 proving, at least for one person, that it really does pay to read EULAs.”
If you’re still thinking about it, you can download a Dangerous Terms .pdf here.
And if you believe you’ve been harmed by a EULA, email the EFF at eulaharm@eff.org
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
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See:-
greatest threats – End User Agreement warning, p2pnet, February 18, 2005
including money – It Pays To Read License Agreements, PC Pitstop, February, 2005
February 24th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
Here’s my “wouldn’t it be great” idea for the day. A website that indexed what the more commonly occuring EULAs mean to consumers in plain english.
February 24th, 2005 at 9:53 pm
That when you transcribe other people stories you often forget to include the links that are in the story, almost as if you don’t read the whole story in detail before posting it…
ie
“If youâre still thinking about it, you can download a Dangerous Terms .pdf here.”
no link, inline or at the end?!?!
Just a suggestion, keep up the effort
February 24th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
— you often forget to include the links that are in the story, almost as if you don’t read the whole story in detail before posting it —
Nine times out of ten, I wrote the story in the first place : ) But I’m going flat out all day every day and sometimes I miss a link, as I did here. I’ve now fixed it and thanks for pointing it out.
Cheers!
February 25th, 2005 at 1:47 am
no problem…thanks
nice work!
February 25th, 2005 at 8:53 am
Few ever reads general agreements, privacy statements, EULA’s or whatever piece of writing you put infront of them.
When sh*t happens then they’ll read but its to late then.
I’ve been drafting contracts for about 4 years now…I know.