What do you do for a EULA? Are there boilerplate EULAs out there to slap into your distro? I haven''t done this before, and I want and need something semi-presentable. What do others do? Any suggestions?

I''m interested in finding out if they are legally enforceable. If no one signs a document and there is no one to witnesses it, how can it be enforced as a contract?

This is just a guess...

You have to "accept" the agreement in order to install it. If it''s on your machine, you have indicated acceptance.

I went to a TV taping once for an HBO comedy special. There was a sign on the door that said something to the effect of "By entering this theater, you agree to allow HBO productions to record and rebroadcast your image...blah, blah, blah"

I''m assuming it''s the same with other situations where it''s not practical to get a signed agreement from people. If you got inside, you agreed to the terms and conditions. If it got onto your machine, you agreed to the terms.

Kooo: That''s what the publishers'' would like anyway ( actually more than that ). But another view would be that paying money was the agreement for use, and they can''t add all the other restrictions in the EULA (activation, no reverse engineering, no publication of benchmarks). IMO software should be treated like cd''s or movies. Once you buy it you can do anything you want with it but distribute copies of it.



Jack

And then some enterprising soul decompiles it, changes it sufficiently so it doesn''t look like yours, and sells it?

I''ve heard of companies that hire people exclusively to reverse engineer a competitors product. They must sign a document saying they have not seen the internal workings of what ever they are reverse engineering.

At this point, the way I understand it, is that EULAs are basically enforceable - at least certain elements anyway. But I believe they are on very weak ground. The reason for this is that licenses that have been reviewed by courts thus far have contained fairly reasonable terms, with the court taking into consideration the ease of replication and the threat to the creator''s profits.

Some licenses contain language that is outright wrong and probably not legally enforceable, but they have not yet been tested in courts for compliance with federal intellectual property laws or consumer protection laws because neither the companies nor consumers have sued over them. Since consumers rarely realize that licenses are not actually "law" they do not question the terms that they have agreed to.

For a pre-market publication you really need something very specific because the issues are very different. For example, in a beta test agreement you want to make sure that testers do not distribute further copies of the game, pass them on to third parties (like your competition, someone who would not be bound to the provisions of the agreement because they were not a party to it), or even retain copies beyond a certain point in time.

As much as it may hurt to do, you should find a lawyer, one who is fairly inexpensive (i.e. NOT a big firm), and discuss what should be put into a Beta or testing agreement. EULAs are pretty basic, but need to be reviewed as well. Lawyers can be expensive, but there are many who support the game industry and may provide free consultation or even draft a license for $200-$300.

I hope this helps you guys.

It was either for DAoC or AO that something went to court. Apparently "clicking" the mouse on the accept button is legally binding while hitting the Enter key is not.

A EULA is only needed when you are selling a product on foreign soils right?

A EULA is recommended in any country, as otherwise by selling someone the program you also sell them the right to deconstruct it and associated data. The EULA is whereby software is liscenced, and never really sold, thus restricting what people can do with it. Buying a piece of software doesn''t give you the same rights as buying say, a fridge.
Also, about boilerplate EULA''s, you could simply edit one from a piece of software you have, other than that I dunno, legal advice could help.