The comments are still coming in about the nastiest of nasty license terms we lloked at in my recent column, and readers are contributing more examples of their own. But one reader raised issues about the bigger picture.
"Some EULA provisions that you highlight are truly amusing anecdotes of a legal system gone haywire," the reader wrote. "Companies large and small are turning our legal system upside down and inside out in order to penalize legitimate users like myself. I can and do vote with my dollars by supporting companies that refrain from such tactics, but that is becoming increasingly difficult to do. The big players are already on the EULA and DRM bandwagon -- with their take-it-or-leave-it attitude I might add -- and smaller players will continue to jump on board as the technology to remotely enforce DRM and EULAs matures.
"It disturbs me to say that this trend will only get worse because most consumers are too complacent to care," the reader continued. "They click through EULA agreements automatically, simply as a now-familiar and requisite step in the install process. After all, who wants to spend another 30 minutes reading and interpret the EULA when all you really want to do is start using that great new software? Let's take a poll: How many times have you aborted the install process, repackaged the software, and marched it back for a refund because you read the EULA and don't agree with the terms?
"Website Terms of Use and Privacy Policies are no better, and again demonstrate how the legal system is being hijacked for the benefit of these companies," the reader the reader concluded. "Privacy Policies are a facade, being nothing more than 'Non-Privacy' statements when you actually read them. Companies will proclaim to safeguard your personal information and privacy, right up until the moment it is shared with third-party and "value-added" agents, who are most likely abroad and who most likely get this information the second you click the submit button. The typical consumer trying to engage in Internet commerce, banking, shopping, and other services must agree to these ridiculous terms and invasions of privacy because there is really no choice."
Ultimately, I think the question this reader is really posing is whether or not the marketplace can reward those with fair terms and punish the bad actors. It certainly can't when customers don't have adequate information about the terms vendors are offering, so let's see what happens if we change that.
Read or post a comment on this story here.
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