Let me ask you a question, do you know what a EULA is and have you ever read through the many EULAs you had to agree to?  If you don’t know what a EULA is, it stands for End-User License Agreement.  It’s those long contracts you have to agree to before you can install or use software and chances are, you never read one to the end.

I wouldn’t blame you though, I don’t read most of them either.  Somehow, I’m beginning to think that they were written that long so that you can miss some important and rather alarming provisions; provisions that curtail consumer rights.

There are a number of consumer traps found in certain EULAs.  You really have to watch out for those “Without notice” phrases.  An example here is from the latest version of iTunes which reads:

Apple and its licensors reserve the right to change, suspend, remove, or disable access to any Services at any time without notice. In no event will Apple be liable for the removal of or disabling of access to any such Services.

What that clause means is that Apple can just terminate its services and you  can’t do anything about it regardless or not you paid for that service.  It basically frees them of all liability should their services go down.  Chances are, this clause or a form of this clause is in most of your installed software EULAs.

Another thing to watch out for are EULAs that specify the legal venue should you need to sue.  Yahoo! for example will require you to submit to the courts located within Santa Clara, California.  It’s good if you live there, if not, better save up for some plane tickets.

At least Yahoo! allows you to sue them in the case they do not meet your expectations.  Some EULAs such as the one from Blizzard Entertainment removes from you the right to go to court against them.  According to their EULA:

YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ABSENT THIS PROVISION, YOU WOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO SUE IN COURT AND HAVE A JURY TRIAL.

At least they made it all caps, but still….

Now here’s the problem, EULAs aren’t negotiated so can only either agree with them, or take a hike and find another service.  So is there a way around them?  Well it seems like a ray of hope is appearing.

Earlier this year, a California appeals court slammed a clause in T-Mobile’s EULA stating that because the agreement was written by a party with superior bargaining strength and the customer was given no ability to negotiate—just a simple yes/no choice—the contract was unconscionable.  Unconscionable is legal babble used to void contracts that are unfair due to one party’s overwhelmingly superior bargaining power.

Basically, the California appeals court has voided the validity of some EULAs.  Now we can actually go to court and appeal certain clauses in these “contracts” if we at least live in the USA.  Is this a good thing?  Certainly.  Now consumers have an avenue to fight for their rights, and service and software providers will now have to take responsibility for their products and services. 

Not all EULAs have bad surprises waiting.  In 2005, a guy named Doug Heckman read the EULA for PC Pitstop and found a clause that the company would send a check for $1,000 to whoever emails them at a certain address.  Doug did and he got the money.  Of course the chances of you coming across such a link is slim. 

So now you know a little more of what that little box that appears before you install or run software contains.  Maybe now, you should at least try to read through it.  It will only take a few minutes of your time.  If you can’t be bothered, then at least try one of many EULA Analyzers available in the Internet.   Those may be enough to save you from getting into serious trouble.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 9:55 am and is filed under Gaming News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.