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NY AG Sues Network Associates Over License Terms

Posted by timothy on from the what-sort-of-license-is-viral-again dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Excite is running an article about how New York is suing McAfee over what it considers a restriction of free speech because McAfee does not allow customers from publishing reviews without prior approval from McAfee. From the article: 'In one instance, Network Associates demanded a retraction of an unfavorable review published in the online and print magazine Network World, citing a clause on its Web site that prohibits product reviews without permission, the lawsuit alleged.'"

4 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Oracle next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a statement found in many products, most notably oracle. You can't publish Oracle benchmarks without Oracle's permission. Hopefully these rules will be rendered moot by this case.

  2. The goverment should regulate EULAs by DavidJA · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In .au, the goverment regulates Lease Agreements for housing, home building contracts, home buying contacts, finance contracts all to protect the consumer and give them a minumum set of rights.

    Why don't the goverment do the same thing with software EULAs?

    1. Re:The goverment should regulate EULAs by digitalunity · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most EULA's contain clauses which state that your usage of their software indicates your agreement to the formentioned EULA. A EULA is a legally binding contract, and if you use a companies software, you 'get your hands tied'.

      I think one thing we all need to focus on are unreasonable terms, such as Microsoft disallowing the usage of Open Source software on .net or the public criticism of a software company. We need what you describe, desperately. I'm not a *big goverment* kind of guy, but there are times when intervention is necessary. Has anyone actually read a Hotmail agreement recently? You'd think that'd be enough to scare off any avid Microsoft fan; but I guess not.

      --
      You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
  3. Lawyer Q&A by cgleba · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I vote to interview a lawyer for the next Q&A. Frankly between these EULA arguments and the BSA stuff in the last article I'm frankly VERY confused :(.