Dangerous Terms - A User's Guide to EULAs

[ronjor]

It's time that consumers understood what happens when they click "I Agree." They may be inviting vendors to snoop on their computers, or allowing companies to prevent them from publicly criticizing the product they've bought. They also click away their right to customize or even repair their devices. This is a guide for the "user" in EULA, the person who stands to lose the most by allowing companies to assert that these click-through agreements count as binding contracts.

eff.org

[bigbuck]

Good read Ron! Pretty scary though!
How unbelievable is this bit?!!

Another disturbing "automatic update" style term appears in McAfee's EULA – it's an automatic subscription renewal clause which says that the company might just charge your credit card an "automatic" fee when your subscription runs out. Agreeing to this EULA seems to mean you may be a McAfee subscriber forever: "Upon expiration of your subscription to the Software, the Company may automatically renew your subscription to the Software at the then prevailing price using credit card information you have previously provided."9

[Marja]

There are alot of scary terms in those!! How about this one?

As TOS agreements become more common, we are likely to see their reach extend off the network and onto consumers' private machines. It's very likely that we will begin to see more and more TOS agreements that forbid consumers from using products to discuss certain socially stigmatized topics, or that assign to the vendor ownership of all consumer data stored with its service. And because many online services also install software or store data on consumers' computers, TOS agreements may claim to govern user activity on private computers, too.

They change the 'name' (TOS)but the game is the same, I think I am going to check out the GripeReview of Ed Foster and his Eula Busters! Seems we are going through a trial run of that with idownload, not being allowed to discuss a product or compare it?? That's crazy!!

[Paranoid2000]

Worst privacy policy example I've seen (pointed out by Eric Howes) was on myfreecursors.com (now sadly deceased...*chortle* *giggle* [super-duper-sarcasm]What a pity![/super-duper-sarcasm]).

See the Outpost forum AGNIS for Outpost Updated (May 4) and the DSLR thread SPYWARE ALERT: MyFreeCursors.com - KeenValue for more details.