Every time I install a new program or sign up for a website on my computer, I roll my eyes at the paragraphs of legalese contained in the End User License Agreement and think to myself, “Who the hell reads these things anyway?”
It turns out that even those who preside over the highest court in the land don’t even bother to read EULAs.
At a speaking engagement at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y., Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. responded to a student’s question by admitting that he’s frustrated by fine print as much as anybody and usually doesn’t read the agreements himself.
Roberts says that the legal system is to blame for the onslaught of fine print associated with everything including software and medications. “Providing too much information defeats the purpose of disclosure, since no one reads it,” he said. “What the answer is, I don’t know.”
The EULA is, of course, an important thing since it contains all of the rules that a company sets forth and users must comply in order to legally use the product.
Blizzard recently invoked the terms included in their EULA for Starcraft II as justification for banning thousands of players accused of using cheat codes and filing suit against three people who allegedly created the codes.
Mike Masnik at Tech Dirt points out that a ruling in Blizzard’s favor in this case could lead to several other companies citing EULA violations for copyright infringement claims. “If Blizzard is allowed to make these claims, then any software/content company that offers you a long license, where you don't obey each and every claim, can say you've infringed on their copyright and owe huge statutory damages,” Masnik wrote in his post about the case.
Like Roberts, I don’t know what a fair solution would be to the problem. In this increasingly litigious society, corporations need a way to protect themselves and their products and pages of fine print seems like the most logical way of accomplishing that. Maybe someday there will be a better way.
