[OT] Open Source, EULA - the Big Bad Bogeyman

[Judy Perry]

Kay,
It's funny you bring this up, as this was one of the things we just covered
last week in my class.
If anyone has too much time on their hands and not enough reading material,
here are some links I dug up for my class on especially egregious EULAs:

http://www.benedelman.org/news/112904-1.html
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/gators-egregious-eula
http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=6507549
http://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-terms-users-guide-eulas

I especially like how the iTunes EULA states that it may not be used to
plan, build or operate a nuclear power facility.  The last time I d/l an
update of iTunes I made certain to read that part ;-)

You said:
Larry Lessig is a Prof. of Law at Stanford, a board member of the Creative
Commons project, and named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries,
for arguing "against interpretations of copyright that could stifle
innovation and discourse online."

Yes, he's written some very interesting things on copyright.  I remember
there was some hope on /. a while back that he'd be picked as Obama's
copyright czar.

It's interesting to see the legal community getting involved in some of
these issues.  I think entire classes at Carnegie Mellon maybe and Harvard
are doing pro-bono work to defend hapless RIAA victims, as is Ray Beckerman
(http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/).  Anytime I buy RIAA-backed
music I donate an equal amount to Beckerman...

Sorry -- I guess that's getting really OT ;-)

Judy
http://revined.blogspot.com