They annoy me quite a bit, for a few reasons;

1) They are ridiculously long: the IOS App store agreement you 'have to read' is 58 pages long. (They could *just* show the changes, but no, have to re-read the WHOLE thing every time...) That's not fun. Which leads on to;

2) No one reads them. Ever.

3) They are not in any way legally binding, at best a producer can say "well we did have it in the EULA, it was on page 42".

4) With 2 and 3, since no one reads them (and everyone knows this), and they aren't legally binding, there is no legal grounds to use them as evidence in a court; that is, you can't say "the plantif should know because it was in the EULA" since it is not reasonable to assume they have read it.

5) They often occur *AFTER* purchase. You buy a new PS3 or a new iPhone, you go home, *THEN* when you set it up, you are asked to read the EULA. Most of the time stores do not accept a product to be returned on the grounds of "I did not accept the EULA", so even if I did read all those pages, I can't even get my money back, and if I do get something back, its probably store credit.

6) Oh, and there is usually no 'alternative'. For example, if I declined the App store agreement, then what am I going to do? Then I have an iDevice that I can't put new apps on to. Great. I really doubt that the person I bought my iDevice from would give me a refund because of this. I may try it some time though...

7) I had another point, but I can't remember it now...



So in closing, if they can't be used in a legal sense, and they are not read by consumers, what the hell is the point of them? Just to wave away complaints by unwitting users?

It is just 1 more inconvenience >_>

Are you sure they can't be used in a court case or something? I thought that was the whole point of them...

They are not legally binding, for many reasons.

Have you ever signed a legal contract? You know, the kind where you sign your signature, put the date, and have someone witness and sign it?

Can you see the difference between that and clicking a button?

Well, the EULA is effectively one of two options:
A) [Accept]
B) [Deny me the use of this product I spent my hard earned money on]

Of course no one is going to select B. Which forces A on you. Fortunately, as Gorman has pointed out it is not legally binding. You could take it as like a safety measure to stop people doing illegal things with their product before "reading the fine print" to see if they can be jailed for it. Best comparison? A bluff in Poker.

I never personally read through any EULAs. Ever. If the god damned thing requires I "read" it by scrolling through it to the end, then it can say hello to itchy-mouse-wheel-finger. So basically, "NO! I don't accept the End-User-License-Agreement, but I'll damn well make use of my product you bastards!"

When you buy a product from company x, you are given the option to use their services (if available). For example, you purchase a new iPod. When signing up for the iTunes service, they give you the terms on which you can use their services. You have the obligation of reading these terms. So, if in the future, you do something like break a rule, they have the legal right to deny you a service, suspend your account, or do anything that the ToS you agreed to allows them. It's their service, you're using it on their conditions. The purpose is to be able to be in complete control if something goes wrong. If you want an alternative, go grab a Zune, PSP, or something that doesn't require an account to use.

Well ignoring the fact that clicking a button is not legally binding, think of this;
You buy a new iTouch, you go to put music on it for the first time, but what is this, you have to accept the terms and conditions first. They ask you AFTER you bought it. Say you don't agree to one of their terms, what are you going to do? Make your iTouch useless? Or take it back?

What place allows you to take it back if you disagree with the T&C? Probably none.

Even worse, what if you have been using it for a year and the T&C change.

When you buy an iTouch you sign no contract or anything like you do with a phone, there is nothing to warn you.

Courts have found EULAs to be legally binding: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...e-licenses.ars

But it seems complicated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softwar..._United_States

You are talking about a different aspect there ;)

I dont think there is much of a point to them either.

They exist so that companies can hold you responsible for just about anything. Product damaged too much? Your fault. Battery opened? Warranty void, you tampered with it. It's all based on capitalism. They will always do what gets them the most money.