Concerns about the new EULA

Yep. Several of my best friends are authors. And some of the crap I've heard from them just about caused my brains to come squirting out my ears. (Only saved by the fact that I HAVE none and everything above the chin is solid bone.)

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

And it's not clear whether any of these things are even enforceable beyond terminating your subscription. Anything else they might say is not enforceable, since you are under duress when you are forced to agree to them, and there's no signature or other explicit acknowledgment of the agreement. This is particularly germane the case of minors who may agree to things without the knowledge or consent of guardians, which is completely possible when time cards are used.

Oh the EULA is almost certainly not enforceable.

What it does do is protect them if you turn around and sue them for canceling your account and banning you. Basically they can point to the EULA and use it to get your lawsuit thrown out. That is all it really exists for to protect them from you.

And that is why the EULA is so very broad to try and restrict just what you can sue for.

I'm pretty sure you abdicated rights to all caves and cabins in a previous EULA. Also, you agreed to agree to all future EULAs in perpetuity infinity+1.

Nice.

I spent a day or so on unleashed but honestly it just seemed like a place for racist to be racist and get away with it. Made me sick so I didn't go back.

Quitting again? Haven't you done this several times already?

You're leaving?. I think I missed your return.

Its funny because it's true.

They have watchdogs! You heard it here first...watchdogs for 5th Column in I22!

(seriously, I knew these guys wouldn't hurt the golden goose, as did lots of the rest of you, I see. So why not have a bit of fun rather than adding to the mayhem! Sorry Zwill! )

I believe some EULAs have been enforced: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eula#En..._United_States though EULAs themselves havent been tested.

I think its NCSofts is over the top with what it allows it to do, (its not alone in being over the top with EULAs either)

It doesnt worry me enough not to click I Agree.

You didn't read what I wrote, did you? It's perfectly reasonable to expect that some laws somewhere will include provisions that if any single part of a contract or agreement is found to be unlawful, it renders the entire instrument null and void. It doesn't matter one little bit what the EULA "explicitly states" as this would be the law voiding the entire EULA...that very law you're agreeing the EULA doesn't "trump."

Maybe I have a really good porn collection...

As I understand it, what generally happens is that the law states that except that if a contract states it's severable, then the law will allow for it. Basically, the law says "no agreement can include term X", and the contract says "X, and Y, severable", and the courts tend to conclude "therefore this is really two simultaneous contracts, one X, one Y, rather than a single combined contract". Effectively.

I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice.

Oh, please. I opened the first thread on the subject of the EULA. I assure you that I'm well acquainted with it.

The fact is that they list a bunch of prohibited activities.

The fact is that they required you to agree that you have no expectation of privacy at all, anywhere. Not in NCSoft message board. Not in a third-party message board. Not in your own personal computer.

" SUCH MONITORING MAY ALSO INCLUDE, BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO, MONITORING FOR THE PURPOSES OF DETECTING SOFTWARE UNDER SECTION 8(c) or 8(e)."

"Is Not Limited To". NCSoft can monitor for those prohibited programs but that's just the stuff they feel like listing. They can monitor for anything they please and you agree that they have the right to do it.

" YOU CONSENT TO THE FOREGOING MONITORING AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT NCSOFT MAY, AT ANY TIME, AND IN ANY MANNER, COMMUNICATE ANY INFORMATION BETWEEN HARDWARE YOU USE WITH THE GAME AND ANY MECHANISM NCSOFT MAY CHOOSE FOR SUCH COMMUNICATIONS. "

Any activity on your computer is fair game for NCSoft to monitor and record and communicate back to their servers. Your porn collection? Fair game. Your IM's to your girlfriend or you mom? Fair game. Your spreadsheets of the merger that your company is proposing with a competitor? Fair game. It's all fair game.

Because you agree that there are no limits to what they can monitor.

And, please - Don't assume that a discussion of the EULA is some sort of emotional panic attack about it. I don't give a rat's *** about it. I find parts of it interesting and I find the entirety just a bit brazen in the way it grants a ton of rights to NCSoft and expresses in a dozen different ways that the end-user has no rights at all.

Since you're so familiar with the EULA, I'm sure that you're aware of section 11 - a - (ii) in which " You warrant and represent that You will not use any Service, Content or Software to provide any information that could be used, directly or indirectly, by another user of the Game to identify You in the real world. You warrant and represent that You will not use any Service, Content or Software to obtain any information that could be used, directly or indirectly, to identify another user of the Game in the real world."

If you need that explained, it says that you aren't allowed to exchange information with any other player that would allow them to identify you or you to identify them. Did that supergroup member give you his email address? You BOTH violated the EULA. Did you see someone's real face on CoHFaces? You violated the EULA. Did you go to the City of Heroes facebook page and leave a comment? You violated the EULA!

There's no point in getting pissy with me about it. I didn't write the damned thing.

Pssst. I live in Seattle. Woops! I guess I just violated the EULA.

Yes, I do. But that doesn't mean I need to "get behind" classic paranoia and conspiracy theory. I'm really not concerned about what you, or anyone else, thinks the EULA might say NCSoft can maybe do some day in some near or distant future. If they do something I find unacceptable, I will leave. It's that simple.

There was no 'overly broad EULA' giving warning before Sony covertly installed rootkits on peoples computers. There was no 'civil rights violating EULA' before Apple phones were covertly tracking the owners movements. The existence of this EULA does not mean they will do anything shady. If/when NCSoft does something I consider inappropriate, then it's time to do something about it.

Wait....are you saying the devs have seen me naked? Well, that should be enough to stop them from any future spying.

Great idea.

New cyber security plan for me!

That's no problem - we've already taken down the Big Dog quite a few times

So?

Anyone that will quit over the new EULA is just looking for an excuse anyway. Good riddance.

This is a fascinating inference. Could you explain how you reasoned it out? I assume that you have handy a proof that there's not a single living human anywhere who cares what documents say?