Interesting Stuff

The California Supreme Court has now ruled that it is unlawful to not allow people to read the EULAs for their software until after opening the shrink-wrap while at the same time not allowing them to return software if the shrink-wrap is opened! This has been going on for a while, and it’s ridiculous. As of a few months ago, the idea was to put the End User License Agreement for software including stuff by Adobe, Symantec, Microsoft on the CD itself, and not allow you to install stuff without agreeing to it (the idea of EULA may be controversial, but for the most part, they’re just fine). However, the idea was also to not allow you to return opened software to Best Buy, Staples, and other vendors (this also makes a lot of sense). This left people in the odd predicament that they couldn’t see the agreement until they couldn’t return the software, should they not accept the agreement. After this ruling, everyone is required to make the EULAs available before you buy anything. This is a remarkable case, because it is rather important, but at the same time will affect almost no one. How odd! I mean, yay! I mean, who cares. I mean, …how odd!