Using EULAs To Bait and Switch

jalefkowit writes "Watchfire, the company behind the popular Web accessibility testing package Bobby, has come up with an innovative way to squeeze money out of customers: they changed the licensing terms of Bobby for the latest release, but don't mention the changes in any of their sales materials -- the first time you'll hear about it is in the EULA, when you install the software. The kicker is, the changes mean that some customers will now have to buy many, many more copies of Bobby than before -- and if the new cost is too rich for your blood, they won't refund the money you paid before you found out about the new terms, since they laid it all out in the EULA! Your options are to either pony up for the additional licenses, or ditch Bobby without ever getting back the money you paid up front. I've written up my experiences dealing with Watchfire and their "upgrade" to Bobby 5.0 -- consider it a cautionary tale for people considering upgrading their own copies, or for anyone who's concerned about how EULAs let companies dodge responsibility for being honest with customers."

Comments

So file a complaint

[SLot]

with the Mass. Attorney General, along with the one in your own state. Let them do what your taxpayer dollars are supposed to do - protect your interests instead of pandering to the lowest common contribu^w denominator.

Does Canada have something along the lines of a AG for each province?

Re:So file a complaint

[jhealy1024]

Filing with the Mass AG is a good idea -- when I've talked to them they've always been very helpful (I live in Mass).

Furthermore, the practice described in the article seems to violate a major provision of the Mass Consumer Protection Law (emphasis mine):

Disclosure of Facts

Mass. Gen. Law Chapter 93A
940 Code of Mass. Regs. 3.05

When you buy from a merchant, you are entitled to all the key facts about the purchase before you buy.

A merchant is obligated under the law to disclose any fact, the disclosure of which may have influenced the buyer not to enter into the transaction to start with.

Similarly, sellers are required in advertising to disclose all material facts concerning the product or service which, if not disclosed, might directly or by implication, mislead the consumer.

Private party sellers, except in car sales, do not have the same obligation to disclose material facts unless asked.

Seems to me that since this change would have affected the decision to make the purchase, the law is pretty cut and dried on this. Of course, IANAL....

Re:If I understand correctly...

[morcheeba]

I think you're essentially right -- it's not a license terms change per se -- but it effectively changes the program from unlimited-clients to just one client. While enforced as the lack of a software feature, it totally changes the pricing model. The EULA connection comes in because it is the only place where you could learn about this feature-downgrade, and the fact that you could only read the EULA once the software was purchased. I don't think it's the "legally-binding" part of the EULA that's of concern; it seems like the long text of the EULA was just a convenient place to hide this notice during the install process.

Re:Not-for-Profit vs. For-Profit Software

[Anonymous Coward]

Some Bobby alternatives: Cynthia Says and WAVE. There's also a Colorblind web page filter. For mozilla users, there's the Checky plug-in to manage validation services.

Re:If I understand correctly...

[Smallpond]

This is the list of changes in 5.0 from their website. Nowhere in it do I see that it removed a feature. In fact it says they have improved reporting. That's a misleading ad if I've ever seen one.

What's New in Bobby(TM) 5.0?

Bobby 5.0 is a comprehensive web accessibility desktop testing tool that incorporates the scanning and reporting functionality of Watchfire® WebQA(TM). Over the past months, we gathered feedback from all previous Bobby users and addressed the common issues in this release. Enhancements include:

Spidering Abilities

* Flash links
* JavaScript parsing and execution
* http(s)
* Session IDs
* Logins
* Now able to scan larger sites than ever before

Reporting

* Improved Section 508/WCAG reporting

New Options

* Advanced scan and report options

HTML Editor Integration

* Now you can fix errors quickly and easily

Extensive online help

* Explains why certain errors are reported as issues

Re:If I understand correctly...

[jalefkowit]

I describe this as a change of licensing terms because when I spoke with Watchfire, they asserted that I had been notified about the change through the EULA displayed when I installed Bobby 5.0 -- in other words, through a changed license agreement. If it was simply a change in the business model for Bobby, and a feature downgrade, that would be one thing -- but they actively asserted to me that the omission of the feature was driven by a desire to change the terms under which users purchased Bobby, and those new terms were laid out in the new EULA. Sorry if this wasn't clear in my original post -- I can see how it might be confusing.