Comments on: A Eulogy for the EULA

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:54:22 +0000

There is only one reason for lawyer-speak. Lawyers have no special talents or knowledge , so they created a language that no-one can understand.This gives them a monopoly on all matters legal and keeps them in work. They don’t deserve it and they have never earned it .Maybe this is why so many politicians are former lawyers ! I think the label of “lawyer” should be changed to “Professional Bullshit Artist” .Rather than to defend the innocent,I think their true agenda is to defend themselves against being exposed for what they truely are ,which is not much ,really……..

By: The death of the beta at FactoryCity

The death of the beta at FactoryCity — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:16:54 +0000

[...] like, you call something "beta" and poof, no more responsibility. Well, clearly no one really does read EULAs anymore or you’d know that, beta or not, no one takes [...]

By: Martey

Martey — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 01:21:57 +0000

Actually, the EULA on the Sony BMG CDs did not inform the user that a rootkit was being installed. See http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html#113079823022750274

By: Peter Forret

Peter Forret — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:07:50 +0000

I think this is something we have to thank the American law system for. In a country where a company can get sued for serving too hot coffee or someone slipping on a wet floor, it’s to be excepted that any product vendor is gonna try to cover their *ss as much as possible. But I agree, EULAs are way too long and incomprehensible, hence never read anyway.
Not sure they should go away completely, though. Sometimes, for beta products or ‘free’ services, there should be some executive summary kind of disclaimer:
* we might have the occasional downtime. don’t use us to run a nuclear plant.
* we back up our data daily, but we might lose X hours of work if some really nasty shit happens.
* this software changes your network settings. We tested it a lot, but it might screw up anyway
* take backups. yourself. often.
* we might be out of business in a year. that’s worse for us than it is for you.
* you are installing a free piece of software to exchange piratized pr0n, we infer that you like raunchy pop-ups for casinos and blue pills
* you just bought these pills on-line, for christ sake. if something falls off, you’re on your own.

By: Vera Horiuchi

Vera Horiuchi — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 19:13:57 +0000

EULAs follow a long tradition of unreadable lawyer-speak appended to products and publications. It’s a ritual, really, not a form of communication. At Apple I waged a campaign to get the lawyers to let the technical writers re-write the legalese. Needless to say, I lost.

By: Tara 'Miss Rogue' Hunt

Tara 'Miss Rogue' Hunt — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 17:56:03 +0000

You are so on fire.