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California Court: EULAs are Inapplicable in Some Cases

Posted by chrisd on from the user-agrees-to-read-linked-story-before-posting dept.

(outer-limits) writes "In a significant ruling in a California court, a judge has ruled the standard EULA licensing agreement to be invalid. This must be the biggest upset in software licensing ever. No more are we powerless End Users of software, having to agree to every restriction a software company makes (Expect an appeal on this, though)." Note that this is about the resale of bundled software, so it's not like EULAs are dead, but this ruling could have broad effects. Update: 02/12 03:45 GMT by J : Yeah, this is a repeat - sorry.

7 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Whats an EULA ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it that thing I press "Next" on before entering the serial I got from astalavista?

    What were they saying in it anyway?

  2. Re:Still unclear. by Dwonis · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why did you buy PCs with Windows on them, if you didn't want it?

  3. Whew! by cdgod · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it just me, or did you just feel a HUGE wight lifted off your shoulders?

    Click to agree? Yes/No

    (By clicking you are abidding by the following license: The clicking action does not guarantee the quality of the opinion of the user nor the author of the message. The user takes full liability for any negative outcomes of posting their optinions on a website. The user gives up their rights to own the speech of their opinion. By clicking the user hereby gives permission to all who read the opinion to have full access to their harddrives with and without any prior notice.)

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    1. Re:Whew! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      A wight? That might explain why I've been low on energy recently...

  4. Re:DUH. by sheetsda · · Score: 5, Funny

    this is very similar to best buy's software policy: if you don't open it, you can return it.

    I always liked when the EULAs said "If you do not agree to the terms of this agreement please return this software..." By opening it to read the license agreement you give up your ability to return it, and by not opening it you can't read the license agreement. Catch 22. My solution? Exchange the opened software for an unopened copy and immediately return that one. (I've heard they're not suppose to let you do this, but no one has ever tried to stop me)

  5. Necronomicon, et al... by Macrobat · · Score: 2, Funny
    So if I buy the Necronomicon and De Vermis Mysteriis from a store and they give me $0.50 discount on the bundle, and then I resell them seperately at pull price, I am ripping off the store or publisher?

    Man, you're ripping off the Old Ones, and you've got a lot bigger problem than a silly EULA.

    --
    "Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
  6. Actually you can by DABANSHEE · · Score: 3, Funny

    No end user in NSW (AFAIK) has been prosecuted for reselling old software they didn't need, because when you resell it you just sell the license with it (ie keep the original retail shrinkwrap box or OEM CD box with it)