[OT] EULA and legality

[Timothy Miller]

An analogous situation exists with medical records. The doctor "owns" the physical record. The patient, in theory, owns and controls the information contained therein.

In theory, when signing a HIPAA release, or other release of information, the patient authorizes the doctor to release the information to certain parties, but not to others. In theory, these authorizations can be modified or withdrawn by the patient at any time. In theory, the patient has the right to see the records, copy them, or send copies to others.

A HIPAA release is rather like a EULA, it seems.

In practice, the rules are broken by doctors about as often as they are honored, patients rarely understand the rules, nor care. Litigation occurs occasionally, when someone screws up, someone complains, someone is harmed, or a patient gets litigious, often inspired by an attorney who sees dollar signs.

Sorta like EULAs, it seems.

Cheers,


(Doctor) Timothy Miller

On Sep 7, 2012, at 7:38 PM, Kay C Lan wrote:

> Good point Mark.
> 
> Looking at my Snow Leopard EULA (as it differs from current EULAs) it says:
> 
> 1 General. The software... are licensed, not sold, to you... You own the
> media on which the Apple Software is recorded...
> 
> So I guess Richmond you are free to use the DVD for lighting a fire,
> throwing at the cat, whilst either in the bath or standing on your head ;-)