ReasonableAgreement.org
Welcome to ReasonableAgreement.org — where we make mincemeat of End User License Agreements. As you move through space, as you look at the Web, when you buy things, when you travel, it’s increasingly the case that you end up making “agreements” to give up your rights. For example, by installing software, you might give up the right to sue the company that made it if it didn’t work. Or by subscribing to an online music service, you might give up your right to loan the songs you buy to a friend. When you install a game like World of Warcraft, you agree to install spyware on your computer. When you sign your credit-card slip at Best Buy or Fry’s, you waive all kinds of rights you get under consumer protection law.
Who knows if this stuff is enforceable? The case law is all over the place. What if you’re under-age? Drunk? Using someone else’s computer — do you agree on your parents’ behalf when you install software at their place over the holidays?
Frankly, it’s all bullshit. The way the system should work is, you buy something, you own it. The law of the land governs your interactions with the seller. What’s the point of having a consumer-protection law if all it takes to get around it is to announce that you’ve agreed to waive your rights by buying something? If consumer protection laws don’t protect people who buy stuff, whom do they protect?
That’s not to say that we can’t have reasonable agreements — like when you and your boss sit down and draw up your employment contract, negotiating the terms on which you’ll work. But the idea that an agreement can be made by shouting, “By standing there doing nothing, you agree to let me stab you in the eye!” is just dumb.
Enter the anti-EULA. Here’s the text of it:
READ CAREFULLY. By [accepting this material|accepting this payment|accepting this business-card|viewing this t-shirt|reading this sticker] you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (”BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.
Put this at the bottom of your emails; print it on your stationery. Stick it on the bottom of the credit-card slips at Best Buy, put it on your warranty cards before you mail them off. Print them on the back of your business-cards.
It’s no more enforceable than any of the other dumb-ass, abusive agreements out there, but this one works for you. It’s time to stop “agreeing.” It’s time to come up with some real, reasonable agreements.
The good people at Bumperactive have printed up stickers — receipt-sized, laptop-sized and bumper-sized — and MondoTees have t-shirts (”BY READING THIS T-SHIRT, YOU AGREE…”). I don’t make any money off of this, and part of every sale goes to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a charity that sticks up for your rights.
There’s no copyright in any of this. Make your own shirts, sell ‘em or give them away. Stickers, stationery, window-signs, door-knockers, welcome-mats — whatever. Do it, make as much dough as you can, just spread it around.
Submit abusive EULAs to the Small Print Project
(Thanks to Steve Simitzis and Cory Doctorow for this great idea)!
[...] The Small Print Project » ReasonableAgreement.org Welcome to ReasonableAgreement.org — where we make mincemeat of End User License Agreements. (tags: Tos corporate license EULA) [...]
[...] folks ReasonableAgreements.org have created the anti-EULA (End User Licenses Agreement). Put this at the bottom of your emails; [...]
Terms of service…
Cory Doctorow talks back to the online Terms of Service proffered by a bed outfit by the name of Sleeping Earthed (Boing Boing, Feb. 1)(more on EULAs/End User License Agreements)…….
[...] Small Print Project - ReasonableAgreement.org [...]
I have two ideas to further this cause.
First, develop a small application that you run before installing software or clicking on a term of service. This app contains the anti-eula. Place this window over the offending EULA and click accept. In V2.0 you could tell the app where to click, and the app could force input for you. You click the ‘DISagree’ button on your app, and it pushes the accept button.
The second idea is more powerful, and more work. Develop benchmark EULAs for various types of agreements. Offer these to the businesses that need EULAs. Rank EULAs so people can choose products with better ToS. Use the DISagree app to insert a user-selectable reasonable agreement. Offer a service to track the DISagreements that people make. If I get sued, I have documentation that I didn’t agree. If lots of people DISagree, the cause gains power.
Love the shir t:-)
I’d like to see an “admittance-wrap” version that hinges on allowing you to enter the premises of a store or venue–even if they make you take off the shirt upon seeing it–so that the shirt does not have to be read to be “valid.”
Applying Work for Hire Laws
===============================
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
Most software companies are misusing the “Work for Hire” and copyright laws. Work for Hire laws are indented for companies to hire people to create artistic work or software for their own use, it is not intended for companies to resell the software created on “Work for Hire”.
To resell an artistic work as per copyright laws, entity selling copyright should pay royalty for each copy to the author of the work. If software companies are not paying author/s of software for every copy sold then the software buyer “automatically” gets the right to make copies and resell them, because the software buyer is essentially buying software as “Work for Hire” form the software publisher since same work for hire and copyright laws applies for the “software publisher” as well as the “software buyer” isn’t it?
For the software publisher to get the “right” for resale they should pay royalty to software author/s for each copy of the software sold as per the present copyright laws.
[...] More infos can be found here and here [...]
I think it would be even better - and more in line with sinister EULA’s I’ve seen - not to print the details in your own anti-EULA, but just to refer to it. “By accepting my payment for your software, you agree that you have read my terms and conditions at reasonableagreement.org.”
[...] Thanks very much. Taken from the Small Print Project [...]
I added it to my email sig… really cool!
[...] brilliant Agreement can be found here Posted inUncategorizedFebruary 20th, [...]
I’m thinking that i’ll be using this as a sig and as an motd on my linux workstation.
now if only i could convince the admins to put it on the servers.
[...] http://smallprint.netzoo.net/reag/ [...]
Hmmmmm….. would it be alright to have my personal checks imprinted with this “anti-EULA” agreement???
(I’m kinda tired of that sunset-scene anyway!)
Couldn’t it simply say “By existing, you agree…”?
[...] Reasonable Agreement: because EULA’s are hell of lame [...]
I love what you guys are doing. I’m gonna add it to my emails, keep it up
[...] for us, the guys at Reasonable Agreement do! Take a look at it and remember to keep an eye for those tricky legally binding [...]
Since I can get checks printed with what ever I like, pictures of cats and stuff, how about a check with this printed on the back?
God it’s got to be legal! It’s the same thing the phone companies do. “By cashing this check for $5.00 you agree to switch your long distance to ATT scam for ever co.”
This is very clever. I do like the idea of attaching it to the check I send the cable company every month. I have a feeling a lawyer would call and tell me to stop. Or they’d just turn off the cable.
Has there been any experience where the kid at Best Buy called over the manager and then refused to sell you whatever it was?
nice, a lot of the big stores dont even have you sign cc slips anymore, just the electronic thing. Then where can we stick these? Force it into the hands of the clerk? I like the check idea, did your bank let you do it?
[...]  The Small Print Project » ReasonableAgreement.org [...]
Cool Idea! I think I;ve found my new sig
I like the shirt. I almost bought one, but the part about having read the agreement put me off. I would totally buy one if it said something like “By seeing this shirt you agree to be bound by…”
What about this:
READ CAREFULLY: By reading this email, you agree to give me one million dollars whenever I ask for it. And I can do whatever I want with your stuff, forever.
i think this is a wonderful thing you are doing. read the fine print was never more imperitive than it is on the net. please excuse poor grammer , i/m not really not dummy just a lousy typist
I’ve been sticking made up agreements on the bottom of emails for a while now. Recently I had to contact HP about a hard drive that had died in a newish computer, and they wanted my email address. I grudgingly gave them an address (unique, of course), and got them to confirm it wouldn’t be used for anything apart from this one support issue. Well, they started spamming it. I sent back a right rant, with a long list of things they have to do (the UK data protection act is good in some respects), along with the following bolted onto the end of the email. I never heard a peep out of them again!
“Disclaimer. Acceptance by the recipient’s mail server to this message is acceptance of these terms by the recipient, as is any reply (including any “auto-response”). Each and every further communication to/cc/bcc any [mydomain] address will be charged an administrative fee of £1000 (one thousand pounds sterling) by the email administration. Any terms on the ends of your emails are invalidated and over ruled by these terms. Attachment or inclusion of any type of “disclaimer” is acceptance of this, and this disclaimer is final (i.e. cannot be overridden or invalidated). [My vanity domain pretending to be a real organisation]’s decision is final over any matter, and you may not sue or take any legal action over future or past communications/contact.”
It would be awesome to include some sort of arbitration agreement where they cover all costs of lawyers, courts fees, and/or arbitration.
[...] exactly this issue that Andy Sternberg has been trying to fight with his project The Small Print Project, and Cory Doctorow with Reasonable [...]
Having sold many Resale Rights products and paying extra for the liscense agreement, I wonder how legally binding these agreements are.
Art
I agree! I agree with all agreements! I must agree! Agree, agree, agree!
[...] screw that. It’s ridiculous and it’s abusive to customers. So abuse back with The Small Print Project. They will sell you stickers (100% of the proceeds got to the EFF) with the following text: READ [...]
[...] Copyright © READ CAREFULLY. By viewing any portion of this website you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (â€BOGUS AGREEMENTSâ€) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer. (thanks to reasonableagreement.org) [...]
[...] really outrageous and fit to point out how ridiculous those things are, I found inspiration at ReasonnablAgreement.com and modified it for my [...]
> The way the system should work is,
> you buy something, you own it.
This is unbelievably simplistic. How would you apply this to telephone service? You paid your bill last month, so you own the copper between your office and the CO?
What people don’t seem to grasp is that you are NOT BUYING most kinds of software. You’re buying a *limited right to use* most software. You no more own most commercial software than you own the phone company.
[...] Source: Basically the exact same boilerplate message from ReasonableAgreement.org. [...]
Here is a an example of the ‘tin-foil hat’ community’s reaction to this phenomenon…
http://www.madamechao.com/w/xxiii/code/legal/terms.html
It is arguable which is more disturbing, the audacity of the offending EULA’s or the resulting dementia it has inflicted on this site’s author.
I found this via my friend Jeff, and posted his version of the text to my LJ info page. (SixApart decided that they would let users flag other users’ posts/journals as porn, hate speech, etc. - *without* letting said user know till the journal had been suspended.)
[...] would be lovely if we could go ahead and fix that. Unfortunately, section 2.1.3 (b)(3) of the EULA explicitly prohibits ‘reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling or otherwise attempting [...]
Interestingly enough, I was able to get out of an abusive mobile phone contract by sticking a few of these stickers on the contract. The collections agency didn’t know what to do after I told them that the contract was void and showed them the stickers, and so they dropped my case.
Thanks!
[...] einiger Webdienste mit gleichen Waffen begegnen will, sollte sich die Initiative ReasonableAgreement.org [...]
Awesome stuff!
I hope you won’t take offence at the criticism, but some of your images would benefit hugely from being GIFs instead of JPGs, as they’re non-photographic, but have suffered from the compression. [/patronising]
“Who knows if this stuff is enforceable?” I know. It’s not. And cluttering up signatures with long winded irrelevant content only furthers the problem. I will not use such crap in my sigs…
Yeah, while we are on the subject, what’s up with this-
LEGALWISE…not right is it…?
“SOMETHING TO TEXT ABOUT” (Nokia/ATT)
more ‘contracts’? 1-888-567-8688
http://www.att.com/fiftyback
‘$50 CASH’ + “Opt Out” + “Prescreened” =…”CRIME?”
WHAT IS ALL THIS ABOUT IF NOT SLAVERY CONDONED BY GOVT?
the ‘Captcha’ (another ’scare-tactic!)for my comments above; was
“about emigrated”
and this one? “…’rail’ Watson!” (I kid you not!)
and here is the ‘pay-off’! “CAPTCHA”…’to prove you are not ROBOT-WARE…right? “…not to SCARE you or nuthin’”….
injured Herbst
I think that proves our contention
CAPTCHA has long been seen as an INSULT to LIBERTY!
PS! They just ‘changed it!’ OK here is new ‘random’ Message
Neighbors Chandler
alot can be ‘derived’ from that gem! REALLY! Anyway-can’t EFF or someone sue the pants off of CAPTCHA. Understand it is created in VENUZUELA for the OIL COMPANIES?
WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY….CAPTCH is NOW….
“POLICEMAN ABOARD!”
Come on! GET RALPH NADERS GROUP AND SUE CARNEGIE MELLON FOR
treason as it is employing someone who has not been VETTED
(ie a FOREIGNER! YES! THIS “GENIUS” IS A SICK-BIRD! SORT OF “RENDITION” TO YOUR COMPUTER! GET IT? COME ON!)
This Letter and All Contents Copyright 2008 Carson Omagh
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
…………….ie NO FAIR USE
[...] Frankly, it’s all bullshit. The way the system should work is, you buy something, you own it. The law of the land governs your interactions with the seller. What’s the point of having a consumer-protection law if all it takes to get around it is to announce that you’ve agreed to waive your rights by buying something? If consumer protection laws don’t protect people who buy stuff, whom do they protect? LINK [...]
Great post!
Remember, folks:
The Large Print Giveth, the Small Print Taketh Away.
Al Czervic
Editor
The Catskill Commentator
http://www.catskillcommentator.com
Hi,
What a classic. For years these managerial morons have put us through agreeing to this crap as a means to proceed, like having a gun to our heads.
But you forget the snag for the common user - they have the power to insert the spyware, and as a user rather than a tech geek, we/you/me have no power or expertise to find it. Even Microsoft are dumping junk into PC’s to make a nag screen come up about registering your operating system. So, you might win a battle, but the managerial morons with their meetings and Powerpoint presentations and pats on each others backs, and jolly good show old chap, will win to a degree in the end. Just because they have the power and connections to do so, not through any skills or sense, or commonsense.
Have a super day, great site, like Duggie MacArthur I will return.
I’m a senior citizen who’s neither a techie nor a business expert. All I know is what I think. For years, I’ve advocated that companies be required to advertise only the “final” price, not the price after taxes and a bunch of other add-ons. I also oppose any “fine print” whatsoever. Why should the buyer have to “beware”? Make it all bottom-line, with nothing concealed. Tell it like it is, not like it is after a bunch of tricky dancing on the part of the seller. I know I’m naive and idealistic, but why can’t an attempt be made to impliment a policy of above-boardmanship? Would be interested in a response from the younger, obviously more sophisticated guys and gals.
Now I want a checkbook with this waiver on the checks near the endorsement line.
Great! I’m going to tattoo this on my arm.
Would software companies die a slow and painful death if EULA is banned or consider a form of extortion, hence becoming illegal? Or will these companies survive and do business like all other companies try harder to make a more reliable and better product and see if people are interested in actually buying it. After people have bought it and it is causing all kinds of problems the software company will refund the money or replace it with a better version. If car companies can do it why can’t software companies do the same?
Brilliant article !
[...] I’ve had enough. While researching some of this stuff I came across a website that was apparently created by people that also are not too fond of the ridiculous direction that software licensing has taken of late, I give you Reasonable Agreement. [...]
[...] I’ve had enough. While researching some of this stuff I came across a website that was apparently created by people that also are not too fond of the ridiculous direction that software licensing has taken of late, I give you Reasonable Agreement. [...]
cool articles !