EULA trap
EULA trap
By Dagou
Acknowledging, you have a serious "bohem resources", which is called "from the public" in social psychology, that is, through the pressure of the society to make your own awareness and behavior in line with the group, society And specification. In many cases this psychological behavior is conducive to the entire group or society to maintain high consistency to improve the activity efficiency, but when the standard and standardization formulation is manipulated by a small number of people, the result will often evolve into the public. Being fooled and a small group of people from the perspective.
What is EULA?
If you have passed the screenshot of "Rainbow Six" on your own website, or play "half-stop" with your friends in the Internet cafes, or the "Hanhua Patch" is made by "Civilization 3", then I am very Regretively inform you, you have violated relevant regulations, you are likely to be like Mr. Mark Rick, in 1993, because of a deadly click, resulting in a loss of $ 2 million.
For the software's EULA (End User License Agreement), everyone wants to be a suit, EULA is a protocol between software users and developers, and this protocol lists the user rights and obligations. When installation or first running software, it will appear on the screen, you only have conditionally acceptable software to install or use the purchased software. Most users will see the EULA terms during the installation process, directly click "I agree" to enter the next step, in their eyes, EULA is just a fooling paper tiger, does not have any legal binding, see this grass rate The move is likely to bring you endless problems.
Microsoft has repeatedly emphasized that when you buy its software, you actually achieve the right of the software rather than complete ownership, which is clear in the law. For an alteration, I am the original author of an article. I sold this article to a magazine, and the magazine only has the right to publish this article (use), without having to modify the article or put it. The article transferred to third parties, the copyright of the article and the final ownership remains at me. Protect the original author's copyright and final ownership, this is the original intention of EULA.
Specific to game software, EULA mainly includes three aspects: First, recognizing the original author's copyright and final ownership of the game software, such as all content in this game software, including but not limited to software code, theme, item, role Name, storyline, text, dialogue, scene, art, animation, sound, music, and related documents are owned by XXX companies. "Without the use of users without any one of them Commercial use. A group of amateur fans did not only use the original artificial and sound effects for the classic game "Ice City Legend" in the 1980s, not only did the original works, did not dare to use the name of "Ice City Legend", even in the game The location and role name have also made a small change, so be careful, it is worried that the copyright owner of "Ice City Legend" is a paper complaint to tell the court. The second content of EULA is that the user must guarantee that it is not copied in any form (except for backup) or sharing the game and its related document with others. These two aspects have not been very thick. The Chinese government has clearly prohibited unauthorized "Computer Software Protection Regulations" on 4 June 1991, has clearly prohibited the consent of the software copyright or its legal acceptance. " Modify, translation, notes, "copy or partial copy", "release, display", "to use the license to use the software to any third party or transfer", as EPIC companies are in "Unreal" EULA The declared: "The software you purchased is a crystallization of many people. These people are pinned to your lives in your legal use, please respect their labor results."
However, if only the copyright of the original author is only, the software business is not necessary to sign such a license agreement with the end user, because most of the content has been reflected in the copyright law of each country, why is it still Do you want to have a lot of mouth in Eula? This involves the third purpose of EULA and the most important purpose - prevent reverse engineering. Is there a legal limit on reverse engineering?
The reverse engineering of the software refers to "reverse analysis of the target procedures of others to derive the design elements of the idea used by the software products of others, and use the reference to develop software, or directly for their own software. "Whether the reincarnation of the software is legal for the discoration of the laws of various countries, because it involves both the issue of how to protect the rights of the author, and also involve the advancement of technology and the development of society.
The European Community Council has affirmed the legitimacy of the reverse engineering from May 14, 1991, which pointed out that people who legally acquire computer programs have the right to load and run computer programs. , Have the right to correct the errors, and have the right to take the necessary behavior to test the functionality of the program, which has the right to reverse the program in order to independently develop compatible software, and carry out the necessary replication, translation behavior for it.
On October 31, 1991, Sega Company sued Accolade's unauthorized to develop cards for Sega 16 game consoles, Sega believed that this behavior violated the copyright and trademark of Sega, requiring Accolade to compensate its huge amount of tax. In April of the following year, the Court of the San Francisco area of the United States was sentenced to Xijia winning, and the behavior of Accolade company was re-engineered. In August, the Ninth Tour Court of the United States overturned the original judgment, accepted the "fair use" Sega game proposed by Accolade to learn how to develop compatible software for its game platform, this judgment is actually a reverse engineering. A affirmation of legality.
Software business is naturally unwilling to become a competitor's learning textbook, so it is aimed to restrict EULA, restrict the use of software users, and Eula is prohibiting all reverse engineering, anti-compilation or disassembly behavior. In 1996, Microsoft's lawyer Robert Gotomo Yawi and Mary Williams were elaborated with the need for Eula. They believe that most users are not interested in the reverse engineering of software, and the law should not force the public. The market's software manufacturers bear more costs in order to provide a meaningless right of most people.
For game companies, EULA's role is to divide the user groups of the game software into two parts: ordinary users and authorized users, the former only has the right to play games, the latter has the full ownership of the game, can be used And modify its core technology - engines to develop their own game software. ID Software's "Destruction Warrior" is the first business engine that is used for authorization. All the previous engines are only self-selling development tools, and there is never a game company considers the engine to make money. Engine licenses have developed to have a considerable scale today. The quality of the engine has also skyrockered. The basic license fee of "Rayt God 2" has a fundamental license fee of $ 400,000 to $ 1 million. Typened, $ 4.00,000 license fee needs to extract more than 10% of the bonus, all of which have to be given by EULA.
Many games allow players (ie, purchasing use rights) on the basis of source code to make new content (mod), provided that producers must not use the modified programs for any commercial use, not For the same plain product, some companies (such as Raven) also stipulate all the copyrights of all the modified version of the player owned by the game company. "Half-life" developer Valve is the biggest beneficiary of this provision, two college students use spare time to produce "half-life" revision "counter-terrorism elite", now this modified version has developed into the world Hot networked games, according to the agreement, Valve has the final ownership of the game, has an exclusive right to commercialize it, without paying any duty. For an alteration, your vegetaries are in my garden, and all the authorities should be unconditionally belong to me. Is this really reasonable? European "About Computer Project Legal Protection Council Directive" clearly requires its seventh as specified in the terms of reverse engineering to exclude in the form of contract, otherwise the contract is invalid, which means that EULA has many restrictions on reverse projects. There will be no protection in Europe.
Who will protect the rights of consumers?
Even if there is a general consumer, there is a significant reason to make an objection to EULA, because the software developer is more when developing EULA, which is the right to consider their own interests rather than consumers. This agreement is based on an inequality. The unfroenter agreement, you either accept, either return, there is no room for bargaining. Eula Provisions: "Once you have installed, replicate or otherwise use this software product, you agree to accept the constraints of the terms in this Protocol, if you do not agree to the terms in this Protocol, XXX is not We are willing to grant the software product. In this case, you must use this software product in this case, and you must contact XXX companies immediately, ask how to return and receive refunds that will not have not yet used. " absurd? ! I didn't start using this software when I read EULA, how can I determine whether it is serious in quality? Who will just retreat it only after purchasing the software because you disagree with one of the terms?
Some commercial ethics companies (such as interplay) always abide by the basic content of the three aspects mentioned above, do not play much in Eula, and most of the games will join a variety of unevenness in EULA. Conditions, limit the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and the responsibility to cope with them, the most obvious thing is the return provisions. We can understand the concerns in this regard. If you buy a washing machine, you have problems with quality in a certain period of time, the sales chamber will allow you to retreat to the washing machine, because he doesn't have to worry that you have copied it. Home spare; software is different, you can easily copy the software, there is no quality difference in the use value, but this concern should not become the excuse of shirking responsibility.
Most gamingers will limit the return period of the product in EULA's "limited guarantee" terms, generally 90 days, from the date of purchase, if you find that the game has any quality problems, you can send it to the game The company, with the original invoice, postage pays, some companies will provide limited technical services within the return period, such as Microsoft. The "half-life" return clause is special, it attaches a request: "You must tell us why you don't like this program." "Unreal" is more stringent, it is more stringent, it is in Eula Without any scratches, they accept returns, and the disc scratches are precisely the main reason for players return. What is even more, Talonsoft refuses to provide any guarantees in the "Limited" EULA, that is, you must first promise that you will not return the quality of the game, you can set the game, ask Where is the equivalent of consumers? After the launch of your own responsibility, the gamer will also ask you all the losses that happen to their body in EULA's "limited liability" terms. "For all direct, indirect, accidental, accidental, accidental, accidental, accidental, accidental, accidental, accidental , Special and relay losses, XXX does not assume any economic responsibility, "In other words, if the game accidentally deletes your system file, let your machine infect the virus, damage your hard drive or let you If you have increased blood pressure, you have no need to prosecute the gamer, even if you prosecute, the agreement does not exceed the price of this game you purchased. Conversely, if you hurt the interests of the game, or only the possibility of damage, it has the right to take it in its seemingly reasonable number of compensation, such as "half-life" EULA regulations: "Sierra, ID software And / or Sierra licenses can claim compensation from probably or actually violated the license agreement. "
The EULA of online games is different from stand-alone games, and players must agree to accept the license agreement developed by game operators when they log in (while when installing client programs). In April 1999, the second largest network role played the game "Eternal Mission" in the United States launched the information piece "Kathak ruins" and changed the EULA of the game. There are two main purposes of this change: 1. Prohibition of players from selling or Virtual roles, equipment, coins, or other subjective items in auction games; 2. Prohibiting players from using any cheating means in the game to obtain benefits. After the changed EULA: "You will give us our computer, extract and upload data related to game-related data for upgrade, and determine any programs that may interfere with the game normally on the basis of our reasonable judgment. The right of data. This is a relatively rare, simply, you have to log in to our game, you must have unconditionally awarded our power: 1, you can connect to your computer; 2, you can spy the data on your computer. Not long, due to a strong protest against the provision, Verants had to revoke the provision and made public apologies.
In summary, we can see that many of the terms in EULA are actually the protection of developers' interests on the basis of sacrifice consumers, such an agreement should be protected by law?
EULA's anecdote
Take some time to browse EULA of each game, you will find many interesting things from it. Here are a few classic cases, let's enjoy it together:
* Declarability: ID company writes such a sentence in each of its works (from the "Rayt God" to "returning to German headquarters"): "You agree to do your best to supervise the software Other users complied with this Agreement. "This sentence means that in addition to the law-abiding, you still have the obligation to supervise others. If someone is found to have anything violated by EULA, you have to stop, If the stop is invalid, you have an obligation to reveal him to the ID software company, otherwise you will be included in the default list. * Screenshot Terms: Id companies prohibit unauthorized use of their game screenshots, which means that the game pictures used in most commercial game media in China are illegal; while Red Stor is "Rainbow Six" The provision has been further placed, expanding the prohibition to the "show to the public", even if it is free, this means that the screenshot of "Rainbow Six" is also default.
* Y2K Terms: Sierra has added a special terms in "Half-life": "Sierra, ID Software, and Sierra's licensee does not guarantee that this program can be properly handled, and / or accept date information at the alternation of the century. "In a word, push your own responsibilities and obligations, there is a bug, no bugs are not normal.
* Internet Cam Terms: If the Y2K clause can also be explained using "limited guarantee", then this "Internet cafe Terms" in front of Y2K clauses is a little puzzled - "Prohibition of anyone will use this software product for any Commercial purposes, including but not limited to Internet cafes, computer game centers or similar places. "Don't I buy a genuine" half-stop "for each machine? The answer is not.
* Java Terms: The most funny EULA clauses appear in the game of Microsoft (such as the "Imperial Age" and "Mechanic Warrior"), the article special statement: "This software product contains support for Java programs. Java technology Impermatics, its design and production are not for use or resale for some network control equipment that require absolutely safe operating environments, such as nuclear equipment operations, aircraft navigation systems or communication systems, aerial traffic control, life maintenance machine Or the weapon system, in these cases, the errors of Java technology may directly lead to death, personally injured or serious physical and environmental damage ... "It is a giant of the software industry, and the navigation system and the navigation system of the aircraft are involved. Come in.
