EULAs More Difficult to Read than Tax Forms

krugdm writes: "Mark Hochhauser has an article over at CNet where he talks about the readability of the legalese used in EULAs and what motivates people to just 'Click to Accept' without reading a word of the agreement. He actually did a readability study where he determined that most EULAs are more difficult to read than a 1040."

Comments

1040

[miracle69]

Isn't the new wording on the 1040 as follows?

1: How much did you make last year? _____

Instructions: Send amount listed on line 1 to IRS.

A solution to the problem

[The_Shadows]

Don't even bother with the EULAs. Get a young person ( < 18 ) to install all your software for you. You don't agree to the EULA, and they can't be legally bound. Everybody wins!

The_Shadows[LTH], out.

Re:A solution to the problem

[orkysoft]

What if I get my cat to click the Agree button? Although he doesn't seem to interested in the mouse ;-)

Re:A solution to the problem

[Anonymous Coward]

What about getting really drunk before installing software. Don't you have to be "of sound mind" to agree to a contract? Isn't it the responsability of the other party to not agree to a contract with someone who isn't sober?

Beer and voided EULAs...then everyone really does win!

1040EZ

[docbrown42]

That's the 1040EZ. The regular 1040 form is now: 1: How much did you make last year? _____ Instructions: Send twice the amount listed on line 1 to IRS.

Re:There is nothing new there...

[tchuladdiass]

Actually, I've got a solution for EULAs. I go ahead and click Accept, then I fire off an email to the support line along the lines of "By receiving this email, you accept my modifications to your EULA as follows...", and follow it with my own terms. I follow it up with "By not re-writing your EULA, you affirm that the above exceptions are valid".

Should be about as valid as their license...

Language?

[martyb]

Given the increasing globalization of the internet, it just hit me that all the EULAs and privacy policies I've seen are written in English. (Granted, I don't do much surfing on non-English pages.) This seems such an obvious loophole, but what if the EULA were written in a different language?

I'd assume there's a requirement that these agreements must be readable by the user... but some I've seen could as well have been written in a different language.

I wonder how long I'll need to wait for somebody to come out with an agreement written in one of these languages: Hacker, Bork! Bork! Bork!, Elmer Fudd, or Klingon ;^)

Re:No surprise...

[TrumpetPower!]

The directions for a bottle of shampoo...are more complex than a 1040!

``Lather. Rinse. Repeat.'' Are you sure you've got the right bottle?

b&

Re:The real problem...

[discstickers]

What if you had 0 friends? Would that throw an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException?

Re:No surprise...

[peddrenth]

The directions for a bottle of shampoo...

Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

Which is why C programmers spend so long in the shower, trying to resolve this infinite loop.

Re:::blink::

[Anonymous Coward]

> Even the software industry is now getting in the act. Quicken, for example, argues that simplifying the tax code will be an unfair attack on its business of selling programs that calculate your tax for you.

Forgot to include the smiley on that spurious post of yours..

Re:Deja vu all over again. . .

[kubrick]

Ah, Slashdot. Where even the Redundant is Offtopic. :)

Re:There is nothing new there...

[Xaoswolf]

I saw one that said "By breaking this seal, your are accepting the liscense inclosed in this package" So you had to cut the sticker and accept the agreement that you couldn't read, because it was inside the package.

I kept the seal intact and cut the side of the box, I wonder if that keeps me safe?