End User License Agreement, EULA

Succinct and To the Point

By Joshua S. Hill

Thursday, August 9, 2007

An End User License Agreement, or EULA, is not something many of you will be aware of, but it is something that all of you will have seen at one time or another. They populate our world like a rabbit does Australia. It is the boilerplate description of what you can't do with a piece of software, music, movie, book, toilet paper, and they are beginning to get out of control.

Simply put, EULA's restrict you to follow the guidelines laid out by the money hungry corporations of the world that are behind whatever product you are using. The most common abuse of this is screamed from the highest peaks by the music and movie industries. "Downloading is illegal!" they cry, hoping that somehow those 13 year olds pirating their movies will pick up the paper and turn to page 34.

Lawsuits are being filed faster than we can report, and everyone from teenagers to grandmothers are being targeted for apparent illegal downloading.

It goes on to place restrictions on where and when you can use certain types of property. For example you can listen to your iPod alone, but are you able to let a friend borrow a headphone and listen to a song that you purchased? Can you send that clip of your nephew singing along to 'My Hips Don't Lie' to your mother on the other side of the country without incurring the wrath?

Of course not. Why should you? For, when you look at it honestly, surely that small snippet of the song will definitely replace the need to listen to the whole song with decent quality. "Hrmph!"

Sarcasm, in my opinion, is the highest form of humor, and I use it freely now. For the simple absurdity of what is going on in the world is bringing the music industry, the movie industry, and the software industry to their collective knees.

So what should we be seeing when we click on the 'Next' button next time we install a piece of software? A piece of software from hotelcode.com seems to have summed it up rather succinctly. It does away with the long winded ways of saying it that most companies have adhered too, and just gone straight to the base of it.

Note, the next two words might be offensive, so if you want, turn away.

The agreement was simple; "F... You!"

That is, essentially, what the companies of the world are telling us when they force us to adhere to their policies, and their outrageous demands for our cooperation. Thankfully, we know better, and a change will come; eventually.