Slashdot Mirror
Man Sues Gateway Because He Can't Read EULA
Scoopy writes "California resident Dennis Sheehan took Gateway to small claims court after he reportedly received a defective computer and little technical support from the PC manufacturer. Gateway responded with their own lawyer and a 2-inch thick stack of legal docs, and claimed that Sheehan violated the EULA, which requires that users give up their right to sue and settle these cases in private arbitration. Sheehan responded that he never read the EULA, which pops up when the user first starts the computer, because the graphics were scrambled — precisely the problem he had complained to tech support in the first place. A judge sided with Sheehan on May 24 and the case will proceed to small claims court. A lawyer is quoted as saying that Sheehan, a high school dropout who is arguing his own case, is in for a world of hurt: 'This poor guy now faces daunting reality of having to litigate this on appeal against Gateway...By winning, he's lost.'"
I believe that we may be approaching critical mass (in decades or centuries, not years) within the imposition of legal absurdity upon humankind. I expect that the populace will ultimately become so oppressed by the duress of corporate greed that uses legal thuggery as it's enforcer, that humanity will just quit accepting it and reject the entire premise of law.
If there is wisdom within the world of corporate law, someone will realise that this is approaching and will work for internal reform, before external reform arrives as a consequence of insults to humanity like this.
Mod parent up. An author who makes the GPL/LGPL into an EULA for their program clearly doesn't even understand the license at its most basic level.
Being a computer user is really tough sometimes: Not only do they expect you to be a computer expert, but they also expect you to be a legal expert.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Amen. Unfortunately, that includes such prominent packages as the Windows binary installers for Pidgin and OpenOffice. OOo is particularly bad in that it forces you to read and accept the LGPL before installing. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'll read the license when I want to do something that's not already implicitly legal, thanks. Stamp it with an open-source logo or something if you want to advertise the fact that this is OSS and not just freeware. Don't propagate the notion that I need your permission to run your software.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Abraham Lincoln would have been proud then.
And these blokes need to re-evaluate what they are doing in life
Having said that Abe Lincoln probably would have preferred to finish/receive an education.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
A better argument is that since the sale was completed before he was presented with the EULA, you don't have to agree to it, regardless of whatever stupid human tricks the computer makes you do.
Even if he could read the EULA, he would never understand it. How can anyone be expected to give informed consent to legalese gibberish? A team of lawyers might not even agree on exactly what it means. All anyone really understands is that we must click on "Yes" or "Agree" to continue. All EULAs should be thrown out in court.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
In this case, there is a good argument there was not proper notice.
There's also a good argument that he did nothing to enter into the agreement. If you buy a car, and there's a cap over the ignition from which a sign is hanging saying that you agree to various terms and conditions if you use the car, that's a pretty shitty way to get someone to enter into a contract, but someone can point to the moment where you agreed to it, or at least failed to raise an objection. If there's a stack of papers in the back seat that you've never seen before telling you that you've forfeited all sorts of rights and incurred all sorts of obligations, that's thinner stuff.
You may be right about "contract iff signature" bullshit in general, but any printed EULA's that were introduced to him only when he received the computer, not during any part of the sale, he didn't sign, didn't mail in, didn't scratch off any of the boxes to see what he won, didn't connect the dots to see what kind of flower they made, they were just foisted upon him without his consideration or consent. It's the same as if Gateway had randomly stopped somebody on the street and handed him a stack of documents that said he could never sue them. That's not a contract. Oh, right. IANAL. I hope that's not a contract.
Finally modding someone offtopic when they rant about what "Begging the Question" means: priceless.
yeah, but even if he could SEE and PRESS the button, it still might not be valid. IANAL but many shrink wrap EULA's and licenses have been ruled invalid. Just because they tell you you can't sue them doesn't mean that you can't. There are various rights and protections you have that they can't take away simply by saying "we are taking this right away from you"
"Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny" ~Frank Zappa
EdelFactor