Spacehamster’s Blog

Groklaw is one of my favourite internet sites - it started as a website to cover the IBM vs SCO court case, but has since then expanded considerably to cover all sorts of open-source issues from a legal perspective. The primary contributor (and creator) of Groklaw is Pamela Jones. In addition to being a passionate proponent and defender of open-source computing, she’s also a paralegal - which means she can add a unique legal perspective to most issues that us IT guys would never even consider.

One of her most recent articles covers Sony’s rootkit controversy. Big thanks to PJ and co. for covering these issues, as it’s made me more aware of the lengths record companies will go to in order to protect against software piracy. Are they so desperate to protect their revenue, that they’ll install malicious computer software on people’s PC, and thereby punish the very same people that legally purchase their CD’s?!!?

There’s an amusing quote regarding EULA’s that comes from Groklaw’s site -

At last, a direct confrontation regarding EULAs. Perhaps you saw the joke on IRQ about throwing a brick through a window with a EULA attached:

I will write on a huge cement block “BY ACCEPTING THIS BRICK THROUGH YOUR WINDOW, YOU ACCEPT IT AS IS AND AGREE TO MY DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS WELL AS DISCLAIMERS OF ALL LIABILITY, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, THAT MAY ARISE FROM THE INSTALLATION OF THIS BRICK INTO YOUR BUILDING.”

Words to live by.