UK calls for investigation of Microsoft (and others’) EULAs

End User License Agreements (EULAs) are nasty things and that has been true for a very long time. Consumers are

particularly hung out to dry – having no negotiating power whatsoever to change any term. The choices are click the agreement button or don’t install and use the software already paid for. That might be tolerable if the agreements were reasonable, but they more-or-less attempt to strip all legal rights whatsoever from the user. Small and big businesses don’t fair well when it comes to EULAs either. The UK has decided to do something about it, or at least its National Consumer Council has recommended that 17 software companies, including Microsoft, be investigated by the European Commission over their EULAs, reports blogger Preston Gralla on Computerworld.

Gralla writes:

The NCC report found that software companies, including Microsoft, “mislead computer users into signing away legal rights.” It concludes that Microsoft and other software companies, “are shifting the legal burden onto consumers who buy computer programmes, leaving them with less protection than when they buy a cheap biro (pen).”

Microsoft was called out for the EULAs on Microsoft Office for Mac (standard edition 2004) and Microsoft Office 2007. That’s not to say that the company’s other EULA’s are wonderful. The NCC only investigated 25 products, including these two.

The 16 other software vendors being taken to task (and, perhaps, being put under investigation) are Adobe, Apple, Chief Architect, Symantec, Magix, Nero, Corel, Sega, Nova Development, Britannica, Sonic Solutions, Twelve Tone Systems, THQ, GSP, McAfee, and Kaspersky.

Gralla reports that the types of problems the NCC found in the offending EULAs include:

* Unclear language.

* Uncertain rights and references to legislation in other countries.

* Unfair contract termination rights for the provider.

* Over-the-top exclusion of liability.

No one reads the EULA before signing it; every consumer knows that they are ridiculous documents intended to favor the vendor and only the vendor. As such, do such documents hold much legal weight at all? A consumer might very well sign and, at least in the U.S., still find grounds to sue a vendor and win. An investigation, if it moves forward, might be a step in the right direction to rectify a situation that would better protect both sides. Then again, if no government intervention ever occurs, maybe the open source model will soon make the EULA a thing of the past anyway.

Go to Microsoft Subnet for more news, blogs, opinion.

More blog posts from the Micronet blog:

Exchange 2007 and WS2008 unhappy together

Bill Gates: Internet censorship just won’t work

Life at Microsoft … funniest video!

Windows Server 2008 new Migration/Editing utility

Windows Server 2008 Management and Maintenance tips

Fabulous giveaways from Microsoft Subnet and Cisco Subnet

All Micronet blog posts

Sign up for the bi-weekly Microsoft newsletter. (Click on News/Microsoft News Alert.)