NY AG Sues Network Associates Over License Terms

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.'"

Comments

The goverment should regulate EULAs

[DavidJA]

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?

Re:The goverment should regulate EULAs

[digitalunity]

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.