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Man Finds $1,000 Prize in EULA 446
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No Kidding (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:2)
That sounds a lot like the FS oral sex scene.
Re:No Kidding (Score:3, Interesting)
Alas it was taken out of the release ROM.
This was right after Lisa and Apple
Re:No Kidding (Score:3, Interesting)
You don't suppose a modernized 3D version is possible, do you? ;-)
Re:No Kidding (Score:2)
I wonder what kind of Easter Eggs can be hidden in Rock Paper Scissors game (in your sig)...
An hidden 'TNT' option that beats everything maybe?
Not really the same at all (Score:3, Insightful)
An easter egg is a fair amount different than a prize offering burried deep in an EULA. People generally will find easter eggs 1 of 3 ways:
1) by searching specifically for an easter egg because they think there is one there for some reason
2) completely by accident
3) after being told exactly how to find it by someone
Re:No Kidding (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
At the point where he asked me to sign my formal review, I had to confess.
That reminds me of a prank.... (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:No Kidding (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No Kidding (Score:3, Funny)
GIVE ME MONEY (Score:3, Funny)
Re:GIVE ME MONEY (Score:3, Interesting)
This offer can be withdrawn at any time
Now if PcPitstop gave $1,000 to every user who Slashdots the site without a clause like this...their deficit would eclipse that of the United States Federal government in no time...so figure by now it's withrawn...
Reading every EULA? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Reading every EULA? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Reading every EULA? (Score:3, Interesting)
Free karma and a happy day to anyone who can get the link.
Re:Reading every EULA? (Score:5, Informative)
Found it! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Reading every EULA? (Score:2)
Er... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Er... (Score:5, Insightful)
Ctrl-F (Score:4, Funny)
$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:5, Funny)
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? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:2)
completely different - contracts have law behind them. EULA's don't convincingly have the law behind them. in fact, the only court case I know of was a company arguing they were meaningless since "no one reads them anyway", because one of their customers used it against them (search
Lots of folks do. (Score:2)
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:3, Interesting)
In my ER, the staff would be more surprised that you were even educated enough to read the consent for surgery.
Anyway, the other reply was correct in that they all pretty much say the same thing--basically that you've been informed about the risks (which pretty much always
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:5, Informative)
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? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:4, Interesting)
"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.' "
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:3, Informative)
Which is why, EULA's aside, I don't install anything I don't understand. I try to keep a minimum of apps on my computer, uninstall what I'm not using and limit my internet connection time. Also helpful is a firewall that watches for any traffic, so I may be aware that something i
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Please, please, people, make an effort and reread your post before submitting it.
My very first thought was: Gaim [sourceforge.net] has an EULA? Oh my god, how long did i sleep last night?
Re:$1,000 for reading all the way through EULAs? (Score:3, Funny)
Cereal Port (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cereal Port (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Cereal Port (Score:2)
And I suddenly think of Ice Pirates (great, cheesy movie)-
"What was THAT???"
"The manifest says it's a..."*mumbles*"space herpee..."
Shouldn't have 'em (Score:2)
Chances are... (Score:3, Informative)
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
Yeah Right! (Score:5, Informative)
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! (Score:4, Informative)
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/cr
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.
EULAs for marketing! (Score:2)
A standard set of EULAs (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:A standard set of EULAs (Score:2)
At least each company usually stay with one licence, so those who only use programs from one vendor would have less EULAs to read.
AFD copyright [dietmar-knoll.de] does this for closed source freeware and shareware.
Of course, in most jurisdictions the EULAs are meaningless drivel that neither add to or remove rights from the customer, since law regulates everything there. They really just would need a few lines say
Re:A standard set of EULAs (Score:2)
Re:A standard set of EULAs (Score:2)
remember Darren Reed? (Score:2)
Re:A standard set of EULAs (Score:2)
I was thinking nearly the same thing. What I would like to see is instead of licence agreements, basically provide them with some flexibility in terms of what they can mandate by copyright law. So, for example, a company could say you are only allowed to have the progr
There ought to be a law (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
hmm... money? (Score:2, Funny)
Of all the bad luck ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of all the bad luck ... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Of all the bad luck ... (Score:5, Funny)
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 ... (Score:4, Funny)
Difficult (Score:2, Interesting)
Knowing so many open source lovers (like myself) are here on slashdot, how many of you have read the GNU GPL?
I had trouble understanding it all, but English is not my primary language...
Re:Difficult (Score:3, Informative)
As you say: reading is one, understanding is two. Often related to each other, but not by definition.
What if you haven't read (for example) the GPL but understand it well enough to know: 1) the most important implications/rights to your work or the work you're using? 2) the very details? 3) what someone who's a lawyer explained to you in laymen terms? and all this due to translations of license (e.g. done with GPLv2, but not legally binding) or brief explanation in laymen term
Speaking of Lawyers...Aftab (Score:3, Informative)
From the article "...if the agreement is incomprehensible, it may be unenforceable, according to Aftab."
Personally i wouldn't trust Ms. Aftab to sit the right way on a toilet. Let alone give sound legal advice.
Oh, and down with software patents and Linux rules n all that.
EULA translation site (Score:2)
That's a great idea for a website that has "plain language" translations of EULA's. Hmm, it appears eula.org is owned by a URL-squatter, but plainlanguageeula.org (and
I read EULAs (Score:2)
Nowadays I usually just skim really fast through them though, since many are so similar in structure.
I know they aren't enforceable, at least where I live. However, if I'm requested to use a product from Microsoft - yes, work dictates - I make sure to read every clause of the EULA, privacy policy, etc. If I find some crazy clause I can use it as a good legal argument for not using the program. And I don't want to be semi-legally bound to perform in a naked marriachi band outside Bill Gate
Nice "parable", but no great utility (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
that does it... (Score:2, Funny)
Steve Mann's Ouijagree (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Steve Mann's Ouijagree (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Steve Mann's Ouijagree (Score:3, Insightful)
Now the question is... (Score:3, Funny)
What about spyware with no EULA? (Score:2)
I don't trust a EULA to tell me it has spyware (Score:4, Interesting)
"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 (Score:3, Interesting)
What to do about EULAs (Score:2)
It's not the company's fault. It's a problem of our litigious legal climate that comapnies have to put in print what should be obvious. In a way, companies are doing us a favor by delineating our rights.
Now if only people would actually empower themselves by reading them. They're usually not that complicated.
As far as I am concerned... (Score:3, Interesting)
EULA's suck. Why should this do anything to change my opinon?
PS. I wonder what would have happened if the corp refused to pay up?
Great, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Personally I think this is a case where the government needs to protect the ignorant and at the same time protect me, because if the idiot masses don't read EULAs and allow their consumer rights to be chipped away, then mine will also be lost.
Throw out the whole system (Score:2, Interesting)
Only took 3000 users? (Score:5, Funny)
Non Personal (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine if you follow somebody around for months and watch every move they make -- you can learn anything needed to advance whatever agenda you have in mind.
Unfortunately, that $1000 check (Score:5, Funny)
Cut 'n' Paste, baby (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Copy editor needed (Score:2)
Is this sentence readable to anyone?
Please, proofread what you submit. Cause the slashdot "editors" sure aren't going to do it for you.
I just got a $1000 from reading the article! (Score:2)
text of EULA from article (Score:2, Funny)
I don't want to have to read EULAs! (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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:
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.
Not worth it (Score:2)
More than $1K (Score:2)
Common End User License Agreement (Score:5, Funny)
----
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 (Score:4, Funny)
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?
Proof? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like a great marketing idea.
1. Get a friend of yours to say they got $1000 from your software
2. Advertise the event on your website
3. Include a fair share of advertisements on page
4. Submit miracle story of how great EULA's are to slashdot
5. People flock to your website to see what it's all about
6. Profit
Even underpants gnomes can figure this one out. Until somebody does an indepth report on the story I'll consider it a ploy and move on.
Another reason why EULAs shouldn't be enforceable (Score:3, Interesting)
The Van Halen brown M&Ms (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Yuck (Score:3, Insightful)
Of the things I want to do the LEAST in my life, reading EULAs ranks pretty high among things which do not cause physical pain or summering to my loved ones.
Fuck reading it. I am more likely to look a prog up on CNET. If it had a lot of thumbs-down, I read those and see what people complain about. People always complain about spyware if its there (and sometimes even if its not)
Doing a google or deja search for name of the program and spyware always brings up some discussion of that topic, which lets me know conclusively (well, as far as something can be conclusive on an internet thread) what the answer is.
Reading the actual EULA? If I am a billion dollar company about to bind something with my product, yea I'll read it. But for something I am installing at home, behind a firewall which will prevent it from phoning home, FUCK IT! Who cares what they wrote?
Something similar to that happened to me (Score:3, Interesting)
So I emailed them asking them for a copy with the correct number of days enabled. They wrote back, instead of making the programmers go to the effort of recompiling, how about just a free copy of the client? Which was exactly what I was hoping to get by asking for the extra 30 days.
To this day, I still use my free copy of F-Secure SSH.
-Bill Kerney
EULA length needs disclosure (Score:3, Insightful)
If I'm buying a new mousemat and it has a 20 page EULA, I'll decline the purchase, as the reading time outweighs the value of the product.
This means all products need the full EULA text printed on the outside of the packaging.
EULAs are bullshit that keep lawyers in sports cars, one reason my games don't have them.
Its 'shirk' ware. (Score:3, Interesting)
A computer screen a work or the home is exactly the WRONG place to ask if you've developped sober second thoughts about having shelled out money already.
You could write in there that they agree so sell their souls into perdition and nobody would notice.
Re:yea let's make society crazy (Score:5, Insightful)
Think of Rumplestiltskin, without the princess even knowing what her end of the deal is.
Re:yea let's make society crazy (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Funny)
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
Where's my F3 key? (Score:2, Interesting)