Post
Topic
Board Beginners & Help
Re: Hardcore libertarians: explain your anti-IP-rights position to me.
by
em3rgentOrdr
on 25/06/2011, 06:11:44 UTC
EULAs are totally invalid contracts.  There is no "meeting of the minds" whereby two parties come to a mutually-understood agreement.  There is almost zero effort by these big corporations to communicate in plain English what exactly all that legalize BS is saying.  And then they hide some little innocent looking phrase cleverly hidden in the 20 pages of dense text that gives them carte-blance to do whatever they want.  Each party must understand what he/she is agreeing to inorder for there to be a valid contract.  At the minimum, there would need to be some multiple-choice quiz after the end of reading the damn EULA to ensure that I, the user, actually understand what I am agreeing to.  The other glaringly obvious flaw with EULAs is the fact that I don't actually have to sign it until after I have purchased it from the store clerk!   Shocked

Which is why I called them 'not contracts'. They're an attempt to end-run around copyright laws and screw customers. Especially with that 'sign after you buy' thing.

That said, I haven't had to see EULA in a long time. FLOSS is your friend!

Myrkul, I was agreeing with you, just elaborating.  Just like my previous miscommunication with you when I commented about the bitcoin symbol.  Anyway, I'm in the same boat as you...I switched exclusively to Linux and almost exclusively to Free/Libre-Open-Source-Software about a year ago and have never looked back.  Only every once in a while when I use some proprietary software like dropbox or whatever that I have to click "agree".