>From my recollection of undergrad business law, the three elements of a contract are: - Offer - Acceptance - Consideration
Is the seller offering a thing of value? Do you accept it (a meeting of the minds)? Is there an exchange of some sort of value (money, service, goods)? Obviously, there are contracts that are unenforceable. You can sell me your soul but how does a court enforce the contract? I could sell you a bridge in Brooklyn but since I don't actually hold title to it, the contract is unenforceable. You can offer me money to kill you wife and I could accept the contract, but then if I got cold feet, would a court enforce the terms of the contract? So there is an implied legality in the contract: the contract has to be legal. And don't even start on the UCC which is the code I presume the EULA falls under. In law school students spend the whole semester covering contract law. -Mike __________________ Michel David Lowe Purcellville, VA -----Original Message----- From: Computer Guys Announcements and Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Constance Warner Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 11:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [CGUYS] The Consequences of EULA Violation There are plenty of examples of contracts that we not able to negotiate, that are still enforceable. Negotiation is not a legal part of contract law. Did you enter into it with full knowledge is. Stewart Full knowledge of the EULA? Well, that's part of the point, isn't it? Does ANYBODY know all the language that's in the typical EULA before they agree to it? I used to try to read every word of every EULA before I signed off on it, but I finally gave up. The prose on those things reads like the wastebasket shreddings of a major law firm, reassembled in no particular order, combined with extracts from the specs of a nuclear power plant. I mean, have you noticed any EULA's lately where the software company really tried to make it easy for the customer to understand all that legalese? (Maybe other people are buying different software than I've been using lately, with EULA's that the average customer actually can understand on first reading. . . .) And, of course, once you've bought the software, you don't have all that much choice, not in a world where--to take an obvious example--many institutions demand documents in Microsoft Word. (Not compatible documents, not equivalent documents, but genuine Word.) No, I don't violate EULA's, at least not consciously. But with all that legal and technical gobbledygook, I can't ever be 100% sure. --Constance ******************************************************************* ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
