Groklaw covers the details of the EFF lawsuit against Sony over the rootkit issue (complaint is here), and notes that one of the grounds is unconscionability of the EULA – presumably a necessity to attack, at least at common law, the legitimacy of disclaimers and limitations on liability. But what I find particularly interesting about the post is the on-point analogy that has apparently been spreading through IRC:
I will write on a huge cement block “BY ACCEPTING THIS BRICK THROUGH YOUR WINDOW, YOU ACCEPT IT AS IS AND AGREE TO MY DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS WELL AS DISCLAIMERS OF ALL LIABILITY, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE INSTALLATION OF THIS BRICK INTO YOUR BUILDING.”
Hilarious. And this was the point I made to Matt Ingram at the Globe a couple of weeks ago on this issue – though I wish I’d been as eloquent.
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That cement block through the window EULA is too brief to be legally binding.
IRQ? I was under the impression it was an IRC quote. From Bash.org…
You’re quite right of course – I just copied and pasted out of GL without thinking – thanks for this.
No problem at all.
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