Corel Linux Only For 18 and Up

Caspian writes "There's an interesting-- and disturbing-- clause in the EULA for Corel's new Linux distribution-- namely, you can't download it unless you're over 18. No mention of an exception for those with parental permission is mentioned. As one who first used Linux at 13 or 14, and first installed it himself at 16, I'm shocked and very much upset. Thoughts?" We've got the offended section of the EULA attached below. Interestingly enough, Corel Linux is based on Debian which has a huge percentage of minor aged developers. Apparently they aren't even allowed to download their own code.

The snippet in question is very close to the top of the EULA. Here are the top few lines-- read for yourself, or read it off of Corel's site here:

End User License Agreement
IMPORTANT: READ CAREFULLY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE FOLLOWING AGREEMENT ("LICENSE") BEFORE DOWNLOADING THE PRODUCT. BY CLICKING "ACCEPT" BELOW:

1.YOU CERTIFY THAT YOU ARE NOT A MINOR AND THAT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ALL OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET OUT IN THE LICENSE BELOW. DOWNLOADING AND/OR USING THE PRODUCT WILL BE AN IRREVOCABLE ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE LICENSE.

Comments

I'm sure they'll fix it - let's not be too harsh.

[Paul Crowley]

It's hard to be sure if this is an oversight, or just some over-zealous lawyers, but somehow I doubt Corel plan to ship pornographic-mpeg-collection.deb along with the distribution. So there's little point in baying for Corel's blood at this point when polite requests that they remove this particular bit of boilerplate from their legalese will almost certainly result in the problem being fixed less than a month from now, and perhaps within days.

On the other hand, if they do plan to include hardcore pornography, what was the download site again?
--

Minors & Contract Law

[Robotech_Master]

I'm not a lawyer, but we've been learning about this in my Business Law course that is taught by one.

Minors have an absolute right to void any contract into which they enter. That means that, to use the prof's example, if you sell your $20,000 car to a 17-year-old kid, he pulls out of the driveway and is immediately hit by a garbage truck which totally demolishes the car, he can immediately void the contract and get his money back and you're left with a $20,000 junkpile.

For this reason, many businesses would refuse to deal with minors at all, which causes problems for "liberated minors" who live on their own and have to buy certain things. This is covered by the Doctrine of Necessities, which states (IIRC) that certain businesses that sell neccesities have to deal with minors, and are legally entitled to "reasonable compensation" for their goods. These necessities include food, clothing, and utilities, and California adds TV and a car to that list (but then, that's California for you).

There have been cases of minors abusing this privilege--for example, my prof told about how his son built up a huge CD collection by joining BMG's "get so many CDs for $1" offer, then voiding the contract...multiple times. He also told about a minor who flew first class on an airline all over the place, then immediately voided the contract and cancelled the check after touching down.

The upshot is, businesses have to be cautious when dealing with minors...and you should be cautious, too, especially if one of them wants to buy your car. It's regrettable from the standpoint of "hey, kids have rights too!" people, but it's a legal necessity.

Re:Minors & Contract Law

[Bruce Perens]

That would be true if the license was a license for use of their FTP site. But it's an end-user software license, and you have to click yes to get access to my software.

And yes, I'm frustrated and it shows, because I have tried to smooth out problems with them twice before, once with the beta license and once with an APT linking issue.

I'll chill out now, but I don't think I can help them the way I did before.

Thanks

Bruce

This is an illegal modification to our licenses

[Bruce Perens]

Corel's had enough time to learn that they aren't allowed to add terms to our GPL licenses. Period. Not even for the best of reasons. Sorry, Corel, just can't do it. The reason this is so bad is that someone has to go through that over-18 certification to download the source to my GPL code, when they have already gotten the binary from Corel. Thus it's infringing upon my license.

I've helped them out a few times, but they fail to learn anything. I can't help them any longer.

Bruce

Parental liability is very limited.

[dmacon]

Not really, I think the liability is limited to about NOK 1000,- ($200-$250 ?).

If you behave badly enough, your parents won't be allowed to care for you anymore. And you will get forster parents; usually idealistic gitar-playing socialists with purpla scarfs, which make you eat vegetables and fish on a regular basis. (Scared straight - Norwegian style).

For computer crimes, they'll probably force you to use Windows for several months. (Although you can probably complain to the human-rights commision in Geneve for this cruel and unusual punnishment).

Language in the source...

[Paul Crowley]

Well, no shit! "What bedtime story would you like today, little Amy? Another chapter of The Phantom Tollbooth, or net/ipv4/tcp_ipv4.c?"

...

"So the packet went back to the firewall, knocked on the door, and said 'Mr. firewall, I have a SYN bit now, may I come in?'

'What port do you want?' said the firewall.

'Port 23' said the packet.

'Get lost!' said the firewall again, and once again booted him all the way back to the source host with an ICMP reject in his ear.

Well! The poor little packet was very upset...

--

Actually, this is GOOD...

[trims]

OK, remember that using software is NOT the same as buying other forms of intellectual property (such as a book). This is stupid, but it's currently the way things work.

When I get a piece of software, I enter into a contract (the terms of which are in the License) between the entity distributing the software and myself. The contract specifies what I can and cannot do with the software I receive.

Unfortunately, in this country, minors are screwed, as they are unable to enter into legally binding contracts (enless you are an emancipated minor, which means you're effectively an adult).

When Corel restricts their downloads to adults, that's actually GOOD. It means that the adult downloading the software is legally responsible for seeing that the contract (eg License) is followed. The adult is of course allowed to share the software with minors, but it is the ADULT that is responsible for making sure the License is upheld.

This is something the Free Software may have overlooked. Think about this scenario:

Typical 16-year old kid downloads gcc from prep.ai.mit.edu (oops, I mean ftp.gnu.org). Kid reads license, then realizes that he's not bound by it, since he's not of age. FSF didn't bother to check if he was allowed to get the software, so BANG! the license is void, and the 16 year old can do WHATEVER HE WANTS with the code. That includes making it into a proprietary product, or selling it to a company that then incorporates it into their company. And that's all legal, because the distributor (FSF) didn't bother to check to see if the receiver was allowed to enter into a contract.

You don't see this problem in ordinary stuff, because when I buy virtually anything BUT software, I'm actually buying the item, and not entering into some weird use-contract. The laws are completely different for actual transfer of ownership.

Unfortunately, but it may actually be the BEST thing that comes from Corel Linux is that they're being really paranoid about covering all their bases (well, actually, just covering their ass) with this thing.

I'm sorry the world has to be like this, but if we want to play in the big leagues, well, we have to live by all the rules.

-Erik