Man Finds $1,000 Prize in EULA

bhtooefr writes "When Doug Heckman was installing a PC Pitstop program, he actually read the EULA. In it, he found a clause stating that he could get financial compensation if he e-mailed PC Pitstop. The result: a $1,000 check, and proof that people don't read EULAs (3,000 people before him didn't notice it). The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs, so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the EULA."

No Kidding

[fembots (753724)]

One of our developers buried some easter eggs in a web-based game, and nobody has claimed them yet after several months.

And the kicker is, players do talk about strange "bugs", even ask us to fix them, but none of them actually goes so far as to discover those eggs. Maybe they will now after reading this post :)

So I gather some of the 3000 users may have read the EULA but dismissed the possibility of real cash prize., just like not everybody entered suparmarket prize draw thinking that they won't be so lucky.

Re:No Kidding

[Ayaress (662020)]

I read EULAs. Usually not when I'm installing something, unless I suspect it may have spyware. I've never found any good easter eggs, just things like being required to upgrade to a new version after n months, being required to grant physical access to my computer on request, and some weird things like not being able to uninstall third party applications on the same partition.

Re:No Kidding

[jacquesm (154384)]

Hehe, that reminds me, a long long time ago in a country far far away from the present one I was a game writer, and one of the games I worked on (the code bit) was a game called 'FlightDeck'.

Now, flightdeck was the most boring game you could imagine, and one night after a hard days work a couple of guys sat in the place where we worked and decided to liven things up a bit. Every so many thousand games one of the elevators in the carrier would go down, a guy would stand on it, the elevator would go up again, he'd strip on the deck and jump off the ship...

This lead to the most baffling support calls of people that really could literally not believe that they'd just seen what they'd seen, and of course we never let the support guys in on the joke...

to give you an idea of how long ago this was, the atari ST was the best machine you could get for little $, 68 K assembler was the way to go for fast games and the Dire Straits had just released "Brothers in Arms" :)

Re:No Kidding

[NanoGator (522640)]

"One of our developers buried some easter eggs in a web-based game, and nobody has claimed them yet after several months."

Heh. I buried something like that in an essay I wrote in English Class. I had a teacher that just piled and piled and piled work on us. I was CERTAIN she didn't read through everything. "If you read this far, I owe ya a soda." I don't know which was worse: Being wrong about my teacher not reading my work, or being out 50 cents.

Re:No Kidding

[Brandybuck (704397)]

That was at school. Try doing that at work in an important document. I did. In my self evaluation, I wrote about how I saved the company CEO from drowning, performed CPR on the vice president, single handedly rallied the stock market around our product, etc. My boss cut and pasted my text into his formal review without ever reading it.

At the point where he asked me to sign my formal review, I had to confess.

That reminds me of a prank....

[Gadgetfreak (97865)]

My buddies and I in college had an ongoing gag... anyone who got up and left the vicinity of their computer with a lab report/paper/presentation on the screen had the phrase "I poop too much" inserted somewhere at random.

Unfortunately, an otherwise excellent paper that I got back had a red pen circle around a certain phrase on the 9th page, with the comment "proofread" written next to it.

GIVE ME MONEY

[oliphaunt (124016)]

where was that EULA link again?

Reading every EULA?

[BizidyDizidy (689383)]

Don't know if it's worth 1,000.

Re:Reading every EULA?

[Xzzy (111297)]

Most of 'em are text files stuck somewhere. Just grep them for phone numbers, email addresses, and if you're feeling clever, mailing addresses. ;)

Re:Reading every EULA?

[omahajim (723760)]

OK, so it took me just a few minutes more to find it [yale.edu] (not the slashdot story itself, but the correct subject anyways). I guess you could say 'the karma's in the mail' now?

Found it!

[BobPaul (710574)]

Is this [slashdot.org] what you were looking for, my good man?

Er...

[Avyakata (825132)]

That's not going to make people read EULAs...all that will make people do is say, "wow, I wish I had been that guy, what a break!"

Re:Er...

[XorNand (517466)]

Yes, but it's brillant marketing. The company only spent $1000. They've already gotten a link from the main page of Slashdot; what more press are they going to see now? The spyware removal business has gotten pretty competitive and now thousands more geeks know about their product. Kudos to the company for a neat, non-evil marketing idea.

Ctrl-F

[by Anonymous Coward]

From now on, I'm at least doing Ctrl-F, 1,000

$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[ackthpt (218170)]

$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs, looking for an Easter Egg?

Mmmm. That's a tough one, but I'll have to pass on the $1,000.

Too many look like that Gator one - pages and pages of gobbledy-gook and mumbo jumbo which ultimately translate to all your base are belong to us.

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[Kenja (541830)]

"Too many look like that Gator one - pages and pages of gobbledy-gook and mumbo jumbo which ultimately translate to all your base are belong to us."

True.

However a good rule of thumb is that if you cant understand the EULA, dont agree to it. I mean would you sign somthing you didn't understand?

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[ackthpt (218170)]

However a good rule of thumb is that if you cant understand the EULA, dont agree to it. I mean would you sign somthing you didn't understand?

Like pretty much everyone else, if I took the time to read them all the way through and understand them then I wouldn't have time to use the product.

The only long documents I make sure I read and understand are the ones doctors give me before performing some test, like MRI or such. Hate to think I may have a staple or something and have one of those things turn my guts to hamburger because I didn't take time to understand fully the procedure and it's risks. Besides, you usually have lots of extra time in a waiting room, assuming you didn't arrive via Emergency Entrance.

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[temojen (678985)]

I mean would you sign somthing you didn't understand?

Interestingly, in 2002 the ER staff were shocked when I insisted on reading the consent for surgery form before signing it. Most people don't read things that are put in front of them that they're told is standard and must be signed.

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[Babbster (107076)]

Are you sure they weren't shocked because while you were carefully reading the consent there was a two-foot-high geyser of blood spouting from your belly button?

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[Sentry21 (8183)]

IANAL, but from what various law classes have taught me...

When it's generally accepted that what is being put in front of you is for a specific purpose (i.e. consent for surgery or permission to run a credit check), all you need to ask for is if there's anything in the contract that you need to know. If there's anything that would not be expected (e.g. 'if you die we get your organs'), then they will tell you, and if they don't, it's not enforcable.

I imagine that if tested in court, EULAs would be considered in the same realm.

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[espo812 (261758)]

all you need to ask for is if there's anything in the contract that you need to know.

IANALE, this certainly isn't legal advice, but I would imagine the suits at any place that deals in contracts/releases like that should have educated the workforce that the proper response to "Is there anything I need to know?" is "Yes. Read the whole thing."

I imagine that if tested in court, EULAs would be considered in the same realm.

So you have to call up the software manufacturer and ask "Is there anything I need to know in this EULA?" Might as well read the damn thing while I'm on hold. And they should just say "Yes, read the whole thing."

Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs?

[fimbulvetr (598306)]

That's just it, TFA points out how it's _not_ just a bunch of gobbledy-gook and mumbo jumbo. To demonstrate, it gives the first paragraph from GAIM's EULA, seen here:

"GAIN Publishing offers some of the most popular software available on the Internet free of charge ("GAIN-Supported Software") in exchange for your agreement to also install GAIN AdServer software ("GAIN"), which will display Pop-Up, Pop-Under, and other types of ads on your computer based on the information we collect as stated in this Privacy Statement. We refer to consumers who have GAIN on their system as 'Subscribers.' "

Cereal Port

[tiktok (147569)]

I'm still waiting for my scale model replica Herbie The Love Bug that I was supposed to receive after mailing in 15 Cheerios box tops in 1974.

Re:Cereal Port

[winkydink (650484)]

Read it again, that was Herpes the Love Bug. See your doctor. :)

Chances are...

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern (759797)]

... we, the slashdotting community, will not be receiving an award for burning down their server. :(

After discovering the nastiness of the kazaa family back in the day, i've been much more careful about reading the EULAs - plenty of "iffy" programs have not been installed on my Windows machines because of the trash found in so many EULAs that apparently no one reads anymore! (or did they ever?)

'cept our newly enriched friend ... what's his name and email again? i'm his cousin ... and stuff.

Yeah Right!

[md17 (68506)]

so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the EULA

Because all spyware apps include a EULA with "THIS IS SPYWARE" in big bold letters? People don't read EULA's because they are legal fluff and mean nothing to the average reader. I personally would like to see a standard, simple format for EULA's like credit card companies do with rate disclosures. Otherwise most users have no idea what they have just agreed to.

Re:Yeah Right!

[TTMuskrat (629320)]

I personally would like to see a standard, simple format for EULA's like credit card companies do with rate disclosures.

I wouldn't use credit cards as a good standard for disclosure. There was an episode of Frontline on PBS called "Secret History of the Credit Card" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cre dit/ [pbs.org]) and they pointed out the really fine print on those credit cards brochures - things like "a clause that allows the company to change your interest rate (APR) at any time, for any reason, as long as they give you 15 days' notice".

I think credit card disclosures are just as bad as EULA agreements and that there are more than a few companies that don't want you reading either.

A standard set of EULAs

[osewa77 (603622)]

Nobody needs to read a GPL license more than once; why can't we have standard comercial agreements? What we need is a standard set of EULAs for different types of software with coded variations ("basic closed source EULA with XXX clause").

There ought to be a law

[bill_mcgonigle (4333)]

why can't we have standard comercial agreements?

Right, and those are called laws. Most of an EULA is already codified in various laws, and everything else is asking you to give up your rights.

If I buy a telephone at WalMart I don't have to sign an EULA. If I buy a softphone at WalMart they expect me to agree to an EULA. What's the difference?

If I buy a car, it comes with software in it, but they don't expect me to sign an EULA.

As far as I can tell, an EULA is saying that Chewbacca lives on Endor.

Of all the bad luck ...

[eck011219 (851729)]

I read my Win2000 SP4 EULA and found out that I owe THEM $1000. Those jerks still haven't cashed my check, either.

Re:Of all the bad luck ...

[LnxAddct (679316)]

Don't worry, windows isn't the only one. I just reinstalled linux and while reading the agreement it turns out I owe some 3rd party $699.

Re:Of all the bad luck ...

[swerk (675797)]

My favorite agreements (not quite EULA's, most of them, but similar) are on websites. Most of the time they just use a textarea as a poor man's iframe to hold the agreement's text, and you must click the "I accept" submit button to continue. Nearly every one of these i have encountered (Verisign does this for sure, if you want to try it out) does not lock the textarea. So, I erase all the crap that's in there and replace it with:

Company XYZ hereby agrees to pay me $1,000,000.

Now that's a contract I can agree to!

Re:Of all the bad luck ...

[by Anonymous Coward]

What's really amusing is that they almost always respond with a "200 OK" HTTP response.

Nice "parable", but no great utility

[rkmath (26375)]

So this is the latest variant of the old fable (big boulder in the middle of the road, everyone walks around it, the chap who finally pushes it aside finds the treasure underneath). But really - nice as the story is, is it going to make any change to how people treat an EULA? I think not.

People will still not read an EULA because

(a) They know thay not every EULA has a $1000 check buried in it

(b) They still won't understand the real point to reading the EULA - which is understanding exactly what the software claims it will do on your computer.

Unless they get (b), there really is no reason to read an EULA.

Steve Mann's Ouijagree

[QuantumG (50515)]

In Steve Mann's award winning paper [eyetap.org] he describes a technique he calls Ouijagree. The next time you are presented with an EULA, grab three nearby people (family members, fellow employees) and have them gentle place their fingers on the mouse. Add your own fingers and then call upon the spirits to agree to the EULA. Watch! as the mouse slowly glides from its current position, possibily spelling out the names of lost loved ones, as it approaches the I Agree button. Should it linger over the button too long, feel free to click yourself as the spirits have made their intention clear. Now it is not you who has agreed to that EULA, it's your long dead great grandfather, who came from beyond the grave to take away your legal responsibility.

Re:Steve Mann's Ouijagree

[gozu (541069)]

It's funny, in french, Oui j'agree means Yes, I agree. Of course, the word agree doesn't exist in french (though its cousin agreement does (agrement)). A similare word would be "accepte". Well, this post was pointless :p

Now the question is...

[mikeophile (647318)]

Will he read the soul-selling EULA on the back of the $1000 check?

I don't trust a EULA to tell me it has spyware

[antispam_ben (591349)]

From TFA:

"The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs, so that one can see if an app is spyware if it is buried in the EULA."

This is even assuming the 'this product includes spyware' statement is even there, encoded in a bunch of legalese. Companies that have spyware in their products are going to hide it as much as is legally possible, and even moreso if they think they can get away with it. This story indicates that they probably CAN get away with it.

Consider this

[HyperChicken (794660)]

Sure, it cost them $1,000, but it's going to get their name in the press.

Only took 3000 users?

[focitrixilous P (690813)]

Man check out what I discovered in the GPL after reading it closely.

Version 2, June 1991

Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble

The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.

SEND EMAIL TO [e-mail] to claim a million dollars and a portion of my beard.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.

We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.

HEY YOU! Want free ci41i5? Email [e-mail]

Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.

Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

KICK ME

Man the things you can't do with an EULA these days.

Unfortunately, that $1000 check

[bwcarty (660606)]

has small print on the back stating that by endorsing that check, he agreed to switch his long distance carrier to Siberian Porn & Bell, he provided his bank account number to the entire country of Nigeria, and his testicles will be fed to contestants on Fear Factor.

Cut 'n' Paste, baby

[Spasemunki (63473)]

I'm not convinced that the people who include EULA's in their products even read them. There is clearly a lot of cutting and pasting that goes on. I find lots of bizarre threats about infringement and exclusivity attached to unsupported free products. One Eula had changed the warranty section to read: "by agreeing to this license, you are granted a warranty for a period of zero (0) days.", rather than just change the language to indicate that their was no warranty.

Best one I've seen so far: reading the EULA for a RPG dice rolling program, I find this:

Section 3.a.i: This software is a guitar utility. This is a learning tool.

A dice roller that teaches you to play the guitar? Now that's a feature!

I don't want to have to read EULAs!

[IvyMike (178408)]

The goal of this was to prove that one should read all EULAs

This is not a goal I want to be moving towards.

I mean, I can go to home depot and buy a nail gun and a welding torch without having to read, parse, and agree to any complex and lengthy legal agreement. Why should I have to do this to buy and use software?

World of Warcraft EULA

[egburr (141740)]

As the article says, it pays to read the EULA. I may not have received big bucks, but at least I managed to receive what the EULA said I should despite the company's refusal to honor it.

A few days ago I submitted a story [slashdot.org] about Blizzard not honoring their EULA in full. After much arguing with Blizzard's support staff, I have heard from them today:

We have been investigating the issues you have raised in connection with our EULA and our Terms of Use. Our legal team is currently in the process of revising our documentation to make the permissions and restrictions more clear for situations such as yours.

In the meantime, we will provide you with a new standard-edition Authentication Key for World of Warcraft. Please use this key to create a new account for yourself:

[key deleted]

Please note that the account associated with the old key that you have will be permanently disabled and rendered unplayable, in order to facilitate the creation of a new account.

If you are interested in purchasing additional copies of World of Warcraft, we strongly recommend that you not acquire used or opened copies, since similar circumstances may similarly delay or prevent your ability to enjoy the product.

The really funny part is that they have never asked for the old key, yet somehow they have disabled it. I can't check, because it never worked for me.

Common End User License Agreement

[defile (1059)]

Software companies, feel free to use in your own products. Released into the public domain.

----

YOUR_COMPANY_NAME_HERE ("Company") makes this copy of NAME_OF_YOUR_SOFTWARE_PRODUCT ("Software") available to you ("Licensee") under terms of this End User License Agreement ("EULA"). By installing software you agree to be bound by the terms contained herein.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Company makes no guarantee of any kind, and waives all implied warranties including mercantibility and fitness for a particular purpose. Company shall not be held liable for any damage, personal injury, deaths, loss of profits, growth of additional organs, or any other injury or debt suffered by licensee due to any negligence, fraud, or other criminal or civil breach of contract or law committed by company. Licensee will hold company harmless under all circumstances in perpetuity.

PARTICIPATION IN GAINS

Company shall participate in the profits, advantages, or other benefits that the licensee experiences as a result of installing, using, or otherwise having anything to do with software no matter how remote or mundane. Company reserves the right to inspect the records of licensees business, premises, or person at any time for any reason to determine if it is entitled to a share of licensee's gains.

GRANTING OF ALL RIGHTS

Licensee gives software and company the right to do do anything it wants to your property or person for any reason. See limitation of liability and participation in gains for more information.

SEVERABILITY

Should a court of any kind find any part of this agreement unenforceable, the remainder of the agreement shall still have full force and effect.

IMMUNITY FROM LAW

No court shall have the power to enforce any of these provisions against the company, but shall have unlimited power to enforce any provision against the licensee. Licensee accepts the jurisdiction of any court.

RECOVERY OF FEES

Licensee must reimburse company for all enforcement fees incurred as a result of any action, in addition to paying a $100,000,000 penalty to the company, whether or not its action is justified.

GOOD FAITH AND DUE CONSIDERATION

Licensee declines any due consideration in accepting this EULA. Licensee accepts this agreement in good faith and verifies that they have read it and understood it in its entirety even if they just scrolled to the end and clicked OK without so much as glancing at it.

RESTRICTIONS ON REDISTRIBUTION

Licensee may not redistribute software in any way. Licensee may not format shift or space shift this software. Licensee waives all fair use rights, including the right to make a backup copy. Backup copies may be purchased from company for a (large) fee.

RESTRICTIONS ON USE

Licensee can only use the software for its intended purposes. We'll let you know what its intended purpose is when we catch you doing it and bring costly legal action against you.

Licensee must discontinue use of software and upgrade when company decides software has reached its end of life.

REVERSE ENGINEERING

Don't even think about it unless you've got really deep pockets so we can sue you for everything.

Sorry, still nobody will read it

[famazza (398147)]

Even Software Companies.

Your brand-new generic-EULA is so faithful that I can't even read the first paragraph.

Contratulations.

Please, can somebody explain me the funny part of this CEULA?

The Van Halen brown M&Ms

[Garabito (720521)]

This reminds me of the story [snopes.com] of Van Halen putting a little clause in their concert contracts, stating that they demanded a bowl of M&Ms in backstage, but the brown ones would have to be removed. The presence of a single brown M&M in the bowl was enough to cancel the concert without any notice.

According to the band the reason for this clause was to assure that the contract had been read and understood and therefore, all technical specifications for stage conditions, power and so forth would be met.

Re:yea let's make society crazy

[Ravenscall (12240)]

I think you are missing the point. The point they are making here us that even a cursory overview of the EULA will tell you if an application is spyware or not. Or if you will be rendered legally sterilizeable if you install this software.

Think of Rumplestiltskin, without the princess even knowing what her end of the deal is.

Re:yea let's make society crazy

[ackthpt (218170)]

I think you are missing the point. The point they are making here us that even a cursory overview of the EULA will tell you if an application is spyware or not. Or if you will be rendered legally sterilizeable if you install this software.

I think the point they're making is that people don't read EULA's and in terms of research, the $1K prize was worth it for the PC Pitstop people to demonstrate that they could pretty much do anything they liked and have the user agreeing to all conditions as a preconditi

Re:yea let's make society crazy

[Ravenscall (12240)]

Think of Rumplestiltskin, without the princess even knowing what her end of the deal is.

And yet the princess was pretty venal, expecting to take advantage of the little dude. Ain't no saints in that story.



That's the point