Monday, October 10, 2005

Clarification on EULA's

DQ reader Jason Maskell wrote in with a good point in reference to EULA's. In short, they might not be legal, or parts of them might not be legal.

To take the example to the extreme, the EULA might say that the software company could come shoot you in the head if you resold the software, and that you agreed to those terms by accepting the EULA. No matter whether you pressed the "accept" button or not, you wouldn't be authorizing them to shoot you in the head, and it would not be legal for them to do so.

EULA's are a gray area because I don't think anyone has mounted a serious, concerted challenge to them, mostly because they're largely unenforceable anyway. I think it's doubtful that a EULA prohibiting resale of software would withstand judicial scrutiny (in the U.S., anyway).

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