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General discussion (archive)Please explain me about EULA briefly(15 posts)(15 posts)
(15 posts)
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Posted April 15, 2012
So I just realized gog added link to EA's EULA on the bottom page of theme hospital. I read it and noticed interesting article:

"12. Export. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and
agree not to transfer the Software to a foreign national, or national destination, which is
prohibited by such laws, without first obtaining, and then complying with, any requisite
government authorization. You certify that you are not a person with whom EA is
prohibited from transacting business under applicable law"

I'm not sure if my memory serves me right. but I remember cannot order any games or digital download from amazon because country restriction. not sure whether they are forbidden by US federal gov or simply forbidden to export electronic softwares overseas.

which makes me wondering though, why does GOG have no restriction like amazon? because it's polish company? then in the case of theme hospital, how does the licensing work?

for example, if someone from Iran (which is banned conducting business with US entities) purchasing EA game does it mean EA has violated federal govenrment law by selling its software to iran nationals?
Post edited April 15, 2012 by calvinms
Posted April 15, 2012
avatar
calvinms: So I just realized gog added link to EA's EULA on the bottom page of theme hospital. I read it and noticed interesting article:

"12. Export. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and
agree not to transfer the Software to a foreign national, or national destination, which is
prohibited by such laws, without first obtaining, and then complying with, any requisite
government authorization. You certify that you are not a person with whom EA is
prohibited from transacting business under applicable law"

I'm not sure if my memory serves me right. but I remember cannot order any games or digital download from amazon because country restriction. not sure whether they are forbidden by US federal gov or simply forbidden to export electronic softwares overseas.

which makes me wondering though, why does GOG have no restriction like amazon? because it's polish company? then in the case of theme hospital, how does the licensing work?

for example, if someone from Iran (which is banned conducting business with US entities) purchasing EA game does it mean EA has violated federal govenrment law by selling its software to iran nationals?
Actually GOG is registered in Cyprus so make of that what you will...
Posted April 15, 2012
Firstly, don't worry about EULAs. They're ludicrous ego pampering documents that aren't really any more legally binding than some of the shitty antiquated laws nobody pays heed to anymore (such as the right to shoot Welsh people).

As for selling to Iran, ultimately that would be the Iranian's problem (the customer). Unless EA thought about setting up a physical premises in Iran it has nothing to worry about when it comes to their laws. After all, Iran has no standing in the world. No extradition treaties and next to no respect from anywhere. Certainly not in the west. No western company has to worry about them unless they're directly trying to get something out of that country (like oil).

In short, EA has nothing to worry about.
Posted April 15, 2012
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Navagon: ...(such as the right to shoot Welsh people).
Wait, I can no longer do that?

Damn, I have to cancel my holiday.

(On a more serious note, especially in the EU, EULA are basically non existend if you are an end-user. They are put in place to avoid commercial leeching and stuff like that. )
Posted April 15, 2012
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Navagon: Firstly, don't worry about EULAs. They're ludicrous ego pampering documents that aren't really any more legally binding than some of the shitty antiquated laws nobody pays heed to anymore (such as the right to shoot Welsh people).
Even more so on GOG. Some of the EULAs here, like the Ubisoft ones, are completely bonkers. See here, for example: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/heroes_of_might_and_magic_series/homm3_eula
Posted April 15, 2012
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SimonG: (On a more serious note, especially in the EU, EULA are basically non existend if you are an end-user. They are put in place to avoid commercial leeching and stuff like that. )
I'm pretty sure you can get in trouble for shooting Welsh people these days. But the government took away our guns. So the Welsh are pretty safe regardless. :P

EULAs are destroyed by the amount of insane crap in them. You;d need a pretty corporate dominated legal system (like in the US or Germany) before there's any chance of them being upheld.
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Wishbone: Even more so on GOG. Some of the EULAs here, like the Ubisoft ones, are completely bonkers. See here, for example: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/heroes_of_might_and_magic_series/homm3_eula
Wow. Given that it's completely against GOG's terms of sale it would be more likely that you could take Ubisoft to court over that EULA than the other way around. That's how dumb it is.
Post edited April 15, 2012 by Navagon
Posted April 15, 2012
A Eula is just a document designed to absolve the software publisher of any and all responsibility of any kind whatsoever. I accept that provision whenever I buy games and I blindly click "Accept" without reading a word of it when I install them.

So far my apathy has not resulted in any ill effects and I expect it will remain that way. It saves me time and needless worry which is a bonus.

Terms of service with an online retailer I'll actually bother to read as they have more far reaching consequences potentially. For example, upon reading the provisions of the Origin terms of service, I knew I did not want to ever buy anything there. So bothering to read that was worthwhile.

My suggestion would be, don't waste one precious moment of your life reading or worrying about software EULA's. Just assume the publisher has zero responsibility to you in any way and that you have no rights to speak of. Simple.

Game on! :-)
Post edited April 15, 2012 by dirtyharry50
Posted April 15, 2012
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Navagon: Firstly, don't worry about EULAs. They're ludicrous ego pampering documents that aren't really any more legally binding than some of the shitty antiquated laws nobody pays heed to anymore (such as the right to shoot Welsh people).
Local lawyer(US) called into a local radio station and said they are holding up in court. I'm not sure how far around the world that goes, or if its really all that true., but do you have cause to say they are worry free, because I wonder sometimes if people say they carry no legal weight because they should carry no legal weight.

You have to buy just to see the EULA only do disagree with it. Then what? Return it? You got to figure someone would just walk into the court with all the EULA's for all the software on the judge's computer on paper and ask, "How many of these contracts have you read and comprehended? How many of these contracts do you believe the average person reads and comprehends?"
Posted April 15, 2012
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Navagon: Firstly, don't worry about EULAs. They're ludicrous ego pampering documents that aren't really any more legally binding than some of the shitty antiquated laws nobody pays heed to anymore (such as the right to shoot Welsh people).
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gooberking: Local lawyer(US) called into a local radio station and said they are holding up in court. I'm not sure how far around the world that goes, or if its really all that true., but do you have cause to say they are worry free, because I wonder sometimes if people say they carry no legal weight because they should carry no legal weight.

You have to buy just to see the EULA only do disagree with it. Then what? Return it? You got to figure someone would just walk into the court with all the EULA's for all the software on the judge's computer on paper and ask, "How many of these contracts have you read and comprehended? How many of these contracts do you believe the average person reads and comprehends?"
I doubt many people read or care about EULAs and I don't blame them. In the grand scheme of life we all have more pressing things to concern ourselves with than statements by software publishers that protect their rights to be irresponsible.
Posted April 15, 2012
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Navagon: EULAs are destroyed by the amount of insane crap in them. You;d need a pretty corporate dominated legal system (like in the US or Germany) before there's any chance of them
I have to disagree. Germany has one (if not the) most consumer friendly courts in Europe. The consumer is one of the three "holy cows" of the german civil legal system (the other being legal minors and tennants).

The bottom line for any ToS or EULA in Europe (for a consumer!) is simply: "Anything in there that you couldn't expect is void." European lawmakers knew that nobody is reading those ToS anyway, so they protected the consumer (again, only the consumer) against ToS and EULAs very thoroughly.
Posted April 15, 2012
EULA and ToS are not legal binding. You cant write a document that say "You have no rights when you sign this". The EULA and ToS do not overwrite laws. Now if you take someone to curt over things like this it can go either way because the laws have not catched up with the technology.
Posted April 15, 2012
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dirtyharry50: I doubt many people read or care about EULAs and I don't blame them. In the grand scheme of life we all have more pressing things to concern ourselves with than statements by software publishers that protect their rights to be irresponsible.
That was more or less my point. Nobody actually reads them(on a consumer level) and if we did we would never see each other because we would all be too busy reading the next agreement.

Nobody reads them, everyone knows it, everyone understands why. So how can you hold someone accountable to something you know good an well they never actually read, AND even if they did probably did not have the sufficient legal expertise to understand it. The whole, read it after you buy it thing, is just a bit of douche icing.
Posted April 15, 2012
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Kaldurenik: EULA and ToS are not legal binding. You cant write a document that say "You have no rights when you sign this". The EULA and ToS do not overwrite laws. Now if you take someone to curt over things like this it can go either way because the laws have not catched up with the technology.
Now I have to paddle in the other direction. In general ToS and EULA are very much legally binding, especially if you are not a consumer. And you would be surprised how quick a contract becomes a ToS.

For us as gamers (consumers), EULAs in the games we play are pretty much a non-issue. But that doesn't mean that they have no legal binding. Once you start doing a business, you are expected to read and check any ToS you sign. There are still voidable clauses in that regard, but you are less protected.
Posted April 15, 2012
avatar
calvinms: So I just realized gog added link to EA's EULA on the bottom page of theme hospital. I read it and noticed interesting article:

"12. Export. You agree to abide by U.S. and other applicable export control laws and
agree not to transfer the Software to a foreign national, or national destination, which is
prohibited by such laws, without first obtaining, and then complying with, any requisite
government authorization. You certify that you are not a person with whom EA is
prohibited from transacting business under applicable law"

I'm not sure if my memory serves me right. but I remember cannot order any games or digital download from amazon because country restriction. not sure whether they are forbidden by US federal gov or simply forbidden to export electronic softwares overseas.

which makes me wondering though, why does GOG have no restriction like amazon? because it's polish company? then in the case of theme hospital, how does the licensing work?

for example, if someone from Iran (which is banned conducting business with US entities) purchasing EA game does it mean EA has violated federal govenrment law by selling its software to iran nationals?
This usually just regards encryption software and other stuff that can be used by the "bad guys" to do "bad stuff". Don't worry, no one is worried the Iranians might play a round of UT2004.
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SimonG: For us as gamers (consumers), EULAs in the games we play are pretty much a non-issue. But that doesn't mean that they have no legal binding. Once you start doing a business, you are expected to read and check any ToS you sign. There are still voidable clauses in that regard, but you are less protected.
Even in the US a business consumer seems to be expected to hold to a higher standard with regards to a EULA and they've been treated much more like contracts.
Post edited April 15, 2012 by orcishgamer
Posted April 16, 2012
thank you for your inputs everyone. just like one poster from the other mentioned, I'm just worried that our beloved company might be in trouble because the interpretation of EULA (specifically: selling games to country banned by US federal)
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General discussion (archive)Please explain me about EULA briefly(15 posts)(15 posts)
(15 posts)