Proof That
(Almost) No One Reads End User License Agreements John
sent this in -- though, there's no date on it, so it's not clear
how recent this is (also, it's on the site of the company in
question, and it doesn't appear to be published anywhere else as of
yet, despite being written by well known columnist Larry Magid).
Apparently in an attempt to prove that no one reads end user
license agreements (EULAs), anti-spyware firm PC Pitstop buried a
note in its own EULA, saying they would give $1,000 to the first
person who emailed them at a certain address. It only took
four months and over
3,000 downloads before someone noticed it and sent an email
(and got the $1,000). While this is an amusing story, it should
also serve to show that EULAs shouldn't be valid at all. They're
designed specifically to scare people off from reading them. It's
hard to see how they can be binding, when they're designed in a way
that almost no one will ever read. It's hard to show that users
were willing participants in the agreement. So far, when EULAs show
up that are
simple
to read, they actually get attention. Meanwhile, isn't it great
to know that the company that has written one of the
more
misleading and impossible to follow EULAs is now
advising
the government on privacy issues?