May I Have Your EULA Please?

LionsFate asks: "Just like the subject says. I want End User Licence Agreements (EULAs). I'm starting a database of as many EULAs as I can get. I want to know the first EULA that said we can't reverse engineer their software. I want to know the first that said they can watch our activities. I want to know how the NES agreement differs from the GameCube. Did Nintendo lighten, or tighten restrictions? I'm looking to generate a time-line of EULAs and how they have changed. What permissions we have been given, and taken away over that period. What rights did we have in Windows 3.1, compared to Windows XP? How has the MPAA and RIAA changed our 'legal rights' on software as a result of their effort? Watched Napster or other P2P software and seen the changes in their EULAs? I'm starting my EULA database at here and I need as many EULAs as I can get to populate the database. If you can, please email me any/all that you can. I'm hoping within a few weeks to have the site online." Ask Slashdot last tackled the topic of EULAs in this piece. It would be interesting to grab a nice sample of EULAs across the last 2 decades to see what has changed, if anything.

Comments

EULA Creation

[vergil]

After you've read through a dozen EULAs and TOS (Terms of Service) Agreements, you'll realize that the vast majority of shrinkwrap/clickwrap adhesion contracts are substantially similar.

Most tech journalists fail to understand this -- evidenced by the ever-popular "New EULA Disclaims Implied Warranty of Merchantability!" articles.

Most EULAs do not contain new, inventive or clever language. After all, they're essentially standard form contracts -- otherwise known as boilerplate -- meaning that one choice of forum/ anti-reverse engineering clause looks pretty much like another.

I spent around a year (while at the Consumer Project on Technology) sifting through EULAs and contract related law, such as UCITA. Occaisionally, I would find an odd clause that appeared particularly draconian. I archived a few of those here.

The EULA clauses I found most fascinating were the ones that: 1. purported to limit benchmarks/criticism of a software title (McAfee), 2. Specified favorable choice of law/forum jurisdictions, 3. attempted to squelch parodies of a software publisher's title (Microsoft).

(yeah, I was the guy that submitted the previous, EULA harvesting Slashdot article). If you want any help dealing w/ EULAs, drop me a line.

Sincerely,
Vergil

Re: Veeck v. SBCCI

[wendy]

The Fifth Circuit recently overruled that panel opinion, holding that people could not be barred by copyright from reading or copying "the law". See here for more.

Ancient UNIX

[SecretAsianMan]

Heh. One of the first things printed on the console by many early unices in the PDP-11 era was "RESTRICTED RIGHTS". This goes back a lot further than one thinks.

Re:He speaks heartfelt....

[aufait]

Perhaps you don't want to buy the software, take it home, open the box, find out you can't accept the EULA, and then discover on attempting to return it that you can't get your money back either?

I tried this 2 to 3 weeks ago. I bought a copy of MS Money from Staples, took it home, started the installation since there was no paper copy of the EULA till I got to the EULA, printed out the EULA, and took it back for a refund.

I fully expected to get the runaround. The store saying they don't give refunds while MS tells me to take it back to the store. To my surprise, I managed to talk the manager into giving me a refund. (That makes me 3 for 3 on obtaining refunds on opened software. The first two had nothing to do with EULA issues.)

The turning point was the printed EULA. The text on the box said "return for a refund" without specifing where or how to do the return. However, the EULA said "return to the place of purchase for a refund".

I had highlighted the "magic phrase" and pointed out that they were authorized resellers of MS software and asked why they weren't honoring the EULA. At that point, the manager made a copy of that page of the EULA and gave me a cash refund.

An interesting sidenote. Money actually installed all the software before showing the EULA. I had to finesse the question: "Did you install the software?" I answered: "I went as far as I had to until I was able to read the EULA".

I am convinced, although I have no proof, based on my conversations with managers when obtaining refunds on software, that MS not only knows, but requires, stores to have the "no refund" policy.