My new InfoWeek column, “Shrinkwrap Licenses: An Epidemic Of Lawsuits Waiting To Happen,” is up — it talks about the potential cost to business of the fine-print bogus agreements that litter our world.
The worst offenders are people who sell you movies and music. They’re closely seconded by people who sell you software, or provide services over the Internet. There’s supposed to be a trade-off to this — you’re getting a discount in exchange for signing onto an abusive agreement. But just try and find the software — discounted or full-price — that doesn’t come with one of these “agreements.”
For example, Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, comes in a rainbow of flavors varying in price from $99 to $399, but all of them come with the same crummy terms of service, which state that “you may not work around any technical limitations in the software,” and that Windows Defender, the bundled anti-malware program, can delete any program from your hard drive that Microsoft doesn’t like, even if it breaks your computer.
See also:
ReasonableAgreement.org – the anti-EULA
Fruitbat “grounded bedding” site has even loonier terms of service