Okay, so most people don't even bother to read EULAs. But I'm glad we glanced at this one, by Ben Long for his Photoshop Action Pack:
You can use these actions for anything you like, and you can give them to your friends and co-workers (or even your enemies, if your experience of the actions leads you to believe that that's where the real worth of this software lies). However, if you give them to someone else, you must give them the whole package including the installer, documentation, sample workflows, and a kiss on the cheek. You must then stand on one foot and cluck like a chicken. (Man, I can see why people want to be lawyers. Once you've got someone under your licensing power, you can make them do anything. But I digress...) . . .Failure to comply with this license will result in absolutely no consequences of any kind, as far as I know of. I'm mostly just writing this because the Apple Package Maker (the program used to create these installers) had this big blank spot where the license agreement goes, and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it, so I thought I'd just fill it instead. Besides, I was so distracted earlier by finishing the Filter By File Type action, that I forgot to go put the laundry in the dryer, so now I have to wait for it to finish so I can make the bed and go to sleep. I guess if I was actually a lawyer, I could hire or coerce someone into doing that for me.
So I wonder. . . how many ridiculous, satirical, and silly EULAs are there that we don't even notice, because we never read them?
Comments
I remember (and found) an old /. story on this.
A guy won $1000 because he was the first to actually take the time to read the EULA.
-> link to story: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/23/2315211
Posted by: who cares | February 9, 2010 5:35 AM
giggle. :) Thank you.
Posted by: Virginia | February 9, 2010 9:11 AM
Great question! It's been years since I've read through one.
Thanks for posting this amusing example
I had to look up what EULA meant. Yesterday, I ran across the term "sock puppet"
Who says that vocabulary shrinks with age?
I remember less than a decade ago looking up the word "blog". Today's definition wasn't even listed. A few days later, the host on my favorite radio talk show was reporting what the top online dictionary searches were for the past month. "Blog" was around number 3. He had no idea what it meant either! Now he has a blog of his own.
So this begs the question, where did "blog" come from?
Posted by: Laura | February 9, 2010 9:19 AM
It is a contraction of
"World Wide Web-accessible log of one's thoughts"
or
"Web log"
Posted by: rpenner | February 9, 2010 12:59 PM
My favorite, by far, is this one for a personal disorganiser, by Terry Pratchett in the discworld book "The Truth":
This device is provided without warranty of any kind as to reliability, accuracy, existence or otherwise or fitness for any particular purpose and Bioalchemic Products specifically does not warrant, guarantee, imply or make any representations as to its merchantability for any particular purpose and furthermore shall have no liability for or responsibility to you or any other person, entity or deity with respect of any loss or damage whatsoever caused by this device or object or by any attempts to destroy it by hammering it against a wall or dropping it into a deep well or any other means whatsoever and moreover asserts that you indicate your acceptance of this agreement or any other agreement that may be substituted at any time by coming within five miles of the product or observing it through large telescopes or by any other means because you are such an easily cowed moron who will happily accept arrogant and unilateral conditions on a piece of highly priced garbage that you would not dream of accepting on a bag of dog biscuits and is used solely at your own risk.
Posted by: Coriolis | February 10, 2010 2:54 PM
Hilarious! I don't think I've *ever* read an EULA.
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | February 10, 2010 5:31 PM