Network Associates Loses Battle to Silence Reviewers

ajkessel writes "This article from today's New York Times covers a court ruling against Network Associates in a suit brought by the New York State Attorney General to invalidate Network Associate's shrink-wrap clause which states: 'The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates Inc.' Network Associates has vowed to appeal." Reader SlashDotIDOne points to a CNET story which says "Network Associates could be forced to pay $0.50 for every license which included this draconian requirement: 'The customer will not publish reviews of this product without prior consent from Network Associates Inc.'"

Comments

Stifling Speech

[hackwrench]

"Such clauses censoring speech and criticism chill not only consumers' speech, but also prevent academics, consumer advocates and technology experts alike from openly and freely discussing software products," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer

Make Eliot Spitzer a Supreme Court Justice!

This ruling is interesting

[GigsVT]

In a way, this ruling creates a basis to say that an EULA is not a "contract" under contract law.

It's been firmly established that companies can enter into contracts with other companies and individuals that have the end result of censoring speech. Every nondisclosure agreement is of this nature.

This ruling is basically saying that the EULA is not a contract in the usual sense, and could provide basis for throwing out a whole lot of EULA clauses that are obnoxious.

While I think it would take another case to broaden this to the point of really making a difference, if this stands up to appeal, then it does make for interesting precedent. The end result could be reeling back in the EULA, and maybe getting some spyware people thrown in jail (including MS). A very good thing.

As always, IANAL.