Cory Doctorow on Shrinkwrap Licenses 125
An anonymous reader writes "Web privacy advocate Cory Doctorow is on about shrinkwrap licenses, in his latest essay. They've always been onerous. Now, Doctorow says the new EULA in Vista and even the MySpace user agreement could put users at risk of being sued. He closes with: 'By reading this article, you agree, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all [everything].'"
Re:Are they actually binding? (Score:4, Informative)
Not legally binding anyways ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Microsoft suing users? (Score:3, Informative)
http://blawg.bsadefense.com/ [bsadefense.com]
Lost your license key, but still have your original CD and sales receipt? Not good enough for the BSA. Read all the gripes that businesses have about having to over-buy "just in case" the BSA "requests" an audit.
Re:Except for all the country... (Score:4, Informative)
Actually courts will usually do what they can to save a contract within interpretation - and will nullfy portions of the contract that cannot be enforced. But no, writing a contract so that it includes clauses which are unenforceable (ie giving up your basic human rights) does not void (the correct term) the contract.
An illegal contract - one that is a contract to commit a crime (ie Rob that bank and I'll help you sell the gold for a 50/50 cut of all proceeds) is - yes - null and void in all states I don't think there are any EULAs out there in the main stream that include contract for crime though - so points for getting one legal principle correct, losses for applying it to the wrong case.
-GiH
(No, not a lawyer, just a law student).
Re:Not legally binding anyways ... (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Most EULAs are boilerplate (Score:3, Informative)
Well, you're kind of confusing the scènes à faire doctrine with the merger doctrine there.
Copyright protects expressions of ideas, but not the underlying ideas themselves. For example, the idea of star-crossed lovers is uncopyrightable, but its particular expression in Romeo and Juliet (ignoring things like when and by whom it was written) would be copyrightable. If there is only one way, or only a small number of ways, to reasonably express an idea, then the idea and the expression(s) merge. Protecting the expression would effectively be protecting the idea, and since the latter is forbidden, there can't be a copyright on the expression. One example of the merger doctrine involved the legal language in rules for a contest; there's only so many ways to say things like 'send your parents' brains, or write "Parents' brains" on a 3x5 card and send it.'
Scènes à faire deals with routine or stock scenes that are standard. For example, in a movie about draculas, you'd have a scene of a spooky castle at night, with a full moon and a wolf howl sound effect. That's so standard that it lacks creativity, which is a constitutional requirement for copyright. But if you have a wacky romantic comedy set in modern-day New York, that same scene, given the overall context, would not be a stock scene, and so would probably be copyrightable there. That copyright wouldn't really matter to the horror genre, but it could be notable in the romantic comedy genre.
Re:Clickwraps/shrinkwraps are binding in US? (Score:3, Informative)