UK Report Slams EULAs

draevil writes "Britain's National Consumer Council has completed an investigation into the practice of software End User License Agreements(EULAs) with the conclusion that many consumers are signing away their legal rights and agreeing to unfair terms, which they could never have scrutinized before purchase. The report also acknowledges that even if the EULA were available prior to purchase, it would be unreasonable to expect an average consumer to understand the terms to which they were agreeing. Here are the full report (PDF) and a summary." The NCC recommends that the European Commission bring softwre licenses under the same consumer protections that apply to other products in the EU.

Comments

At Last!

[Wandering Wombat]

Someone in power has been soundly beaten with the Common Sense Foam Cluebat. (Copyright, All Rights Reserved)

By replying to this message

[TheLink]

By replying to this message, you agree to sign away all your rights to me, and once a month, go to a public place, stand on one foot and howl at sky at 12am.

What no replies?

*yawn*

Re:By replying to this message

[Eberlin]

And by reading the subject line of this reply, you agree to give me all my rights back.

However, I'll voluntarily do the one foot, howl at sky thing. Sounds fun enough.

Unfortunately the document

[LM741N]

Contains a EULA which forbids it from being read.

Re:Where's my signature?

[sjbe]

What does an opportunity to review them mean exactly? Should have added the word "reasonable" in there. Otherwise you end up with a scene from a Douglas Adams book involving a basement without stairs and a sign saying "beware of cougar".