No, this is not the name of my matronly great aunt. EULA stands for End-User-License-Agreement. It is the thing that pops up when you install software that you have to click AGREE on to complete the install.
In a nutshell, the EULA basically says you will not do anything bad with the software and that you accept that if you do anything stupid with it, it is your fault.
At least, that is what I hope they say. I have yet to meet someone who has actually read a EULA. Frankly, it would no surprise me to learn that companies have been messing with us all these years and putting pretty much anything they can think of in there, safe in the knowledge that we will happily click on the button so we can shoot zombies in the head.
What might be in a EULA, you may ask? Well, tune in tomorrow to find out.
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5 comments:
The most important part of the EULA is that you agree to only install it once on one PC. They could care less about the rest.
Oh, and excellent comic!
I have read a few, briefly, but it's a rare occurance that I'll do so. It just takes too much time, for which they're not paying/reimbursing me, and it's not as if I'm able to detect the legal traps anyway.
I personally know 3 people that read EULA's all the way through. They're all lawyers. If 3 lawyers do it for personal reasons, I know that there are alot of lawyers out there that get payed to read them through, and you can bet your garters that if one of those lawyers does find something, he (or she) will get a very big cookie, and a politician will have a heyday with the offending EULA!
I sometimes skim them out of habit, but rarely read them all the way through (an affect from being raised by lawyers).
Lawyers aren't evil, politicians are!.
~Nate
I'm not a lawyer, but I have read more than a few EULAs, just to see if they were trying to get something past me. I keep expecting one to include text like, "Also, by clicking, you agree to name your first born child Gloxomax and to kill at least one cat every day, bwa ha ha ha ha!" To date, I've been disappointed, they've all been quite dry and reasonable. Pity.
Lawyers aren't necessarily evil, but a lot of them are. Politicians are usually evil, but then most of them are lawyers!
Thanks Laz :)
That's true, Gillsing. You'd need to be a lawyer to understand all the legalize anyway. I guess we just hope we don't have to name our first born Gloxomax or anything.
I don't think all lawyers are evil, but you tend to hear about the ones that are. Politicians, on the other hand :)
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