UnknownPlayer.com

Sometimes the strangest and most obscure lawsuits can set precedents that have profound effects on the rest of the country. Such a situation occurred recently in a California District Court case between BlackSnow Interactive and Mythic Entertainment. The Judge in that case found key elements of Mythic’s end user license agreement (EULA) enforceable. The EULA is that list of legal jargon you have to agree to before you install various software products on your computer. Computer users rarely read and understand the entire EULA before they click “accept” to continue the installation. This precedent implies that you can be held bound to that agreement as if you had read and understood it when you clicked on that button. Millions of Americans are potentially affected.

Why is this precedent so important to the average American? What is written in some EULA’s may surprise the unwary. Microsoft Windows products, for instance, contain a provision that the purchaser of these products does not actually own the software. They are merely renting the software and are restricted in how they may copy it. Most online games contain Code of Conduct provisions, which essentially say that you must behave nicely to other players (if you kill them, do it nicely…) or risk having your account restricted or even deleted. It is very common for players to ignore the Code, saying either “I never agreed to that” or “That isn’t enforceable”. Well, yes you did, and now it is.