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Sony's EULA Worse Than Its Rootkit?
jaaron writes "If you think the Sony rootkit is bad, check out the accompanying EULA! From the EFF's summary: 'If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. ... Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. ... Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling.'"
I, the undersigned, agree to the following terms of the use of TooMuchEspressoGuy's money (hereafter referred to as "my money") as it has been spent on Sony music products:
1) If Sony HQ, any factories, or any other property owned by employees of Sony gets burgled, you must give me back my money.
2) You cannot keep my money in your pocket at work, or in any bank or online service such as Paypal.
3) If you move out of the country, you must give me back my money.
4) You must install any and all software that I decide should be on the computers of any Sony employee, or else give me back my money.
5) I reserve the right to install any backdoors on said computers stipulated in (4) in order to enforce my rights as proper holder of my money.
6) I will never be liable to you for more than exactly $5.00 for damages to you or your property through the use of any of the rights granted to me in this EULA.
7) If you file for bankruptcy, you must give me back my money.
8) You have no right to transfer (i.e. spend) my money, even along with the original coins, dollar bills, etc.
9) You may not use my money for personal use, including but not limited to: origami; flipping coins; lighting expensive Cuban cigars; et al.
As soon as Sony agrees to this EULA, or gets rid of its own, I will begin buying Sony music again.
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
I haven't got the full text back from my lawyer, but in future all of my transactions with Sony will be accompanied by a "vendor user license agreement":
...
IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: By accepting my (hereafter: "CONSUMER") purchase of your product, you (hereafter: "VENDOR") will need to review and agree to be bound by an vendor user license agreement or "VULA", the terms and conditions of which are set forth below.
As soon as you have agreed to be bound by the terms and conditions of the VULA, this transaction will automatically install a small proprietary software program (the "SOFTWARE") into YOUR BOOKKEEPING SYSTEM.
...
From time to time CONSUMER will use the SOFTWARE to enforce his statutory rights, including checking the validity of any data held on him and updating it as he deems fit and in accordance with relevant privacy and data protection laws.
...
Music Label: We grant ourselves the authority to do anything we want inside or outside your house, to you and your family, with or without notice, including but not limited to: erasing your wedding photos, replacing all your music with Milli Vanilli's Greatest hits, recording you singing in the shower, ruining your kid's christmas, getting you fired from your job, anally raping your poodle with a steel toothbrush, and force-feeding you your own dead grandmother's ashes. You hereby agree to hold Music Label harmless and you expressly waive all rights to damages, compensatory and punitive, arising from Music Label's actions.
Joe Consumer: What is a rootkit? Is it dangero---WHOA NEW ALBUM ADVERTISED AT ME! MUST BUY IT NOW!!! MUST BUY IT NOW!!!
My friend sent me this bash.org quote link.
/. didn't like the uppercase: "Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! :(
I would had copy and pasted in here, but
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING." and I am lazy to lowercase them manually, and EULA is all CAPS.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
They don't have a laughable chair-throwing exec!
a chair flies in from japan
INCOMING!!!!
"Hello 911? I just tried to toast some bread, and the toaster grew an arm and stabbed me in the face!"
At least they don't say that you have to move out of the country if you delete the songs from your computer.
tone
tone
People (even some /.ers) are somehow getting the idea that EULAs are contractual obligations. They're NOT. Once you've paid for an item, clicking "I Agree" doesn't do a single thing except let you continue using what you've paid for. This means you can do ANYTHING you want with the software/hardware provided it doesn't break existing laws (eg. copywrite).
If it weren't so, we'd have bigger issues at hand.
Check out my sig for more info.
Why is your website's mascott a robot with a huge penis?
-Colin
Ya, last time I checked, the slogan becomes "It's a sorry".
My brain stores a copy of the music, shall I destroy it?
Congratulations, you just Godwin'd the entire thread.
It's not a penis. It is the neck of a guitar. I can't believe I actually had to respond to a comment like this...
I have nothing clever to put here...