At 8:47 AM -0600 23/11/05, David Bovill wrote:
To avoid list clutter it would be a simple policy to add a license url to the default email header, and to add a EULA to the email list sign up process - that way everyone is clear what the terms of posting code to the list are.
I can't let that comment go without putting my oar in. Do not mislead yourself into thinking that a sign up EULA would make anyone clear what the terms of posting code to the list are.
EULAs are most often simply agreed to by the users without being read. I am constantly amazed that anyone is prepared to kid themselves that EULAs should be legally enforceable. It may make legal systems work smoothly to uphold a fiction that people read, understand and agree to the terms in EULAs, but it is simply untrue in the majority of cases. EULAs are most often simply agreed to by the users without being read.
Last week I bought a fire-wire cable for my iPod at an Apple dealer in Melbourne, Next Byte. I paid for it, put it into my backpack and started to leave, but the salesman rushed to stop me and asked that I sign long cash register docket that included "I hereby accept the terms and conditions..." There were five terms and conditions on the front of the docket and 14 on the back, including one that uses "effect" when the clear intention is "affect". There was no pretence that I should read the terms and conditions prior to signing my assent. A contract for purchasing a fire-wire cable? Bloody hell, we've gone mad! I signed it (without reading it) because I wanted the docket as a curio, but I dare say it will simply be the first of many that I am expected to sign.
The docket says repeatedly that "Full terms and conditions can be found on www.nextbyte.com.au." Does that imply that there are more? I couldn't find any on that website... In Australia purchasers have a number of statutory rights that can not be waived. Many contracts of sale attempt, knowingly or not, to bypass, diminish or distract from those rights. Item 7.4 of the terms and conditions is that "The customer has not relied upon any representation made by Next Byte or upon the skill and judgement of Next Byte...", so even if you did, you didn't (even if you think you did because you didn't read the document that says you didn't. It sounds like something that Donald Rumsfeld might enjoy.
In my opinion a document or EULA that is proffered for a signature with no expectation that both parties know and understand the contents should be as legally enforceable as toilet paper. Maybe I'm a dummy.
Regards, -- Michael J. Lew Senior Lecturer Department of Pharmacology The University of Melbourne Parkville 3010 Victoria Australia Phone +613 8344 8304 ** New email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ** _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
