End-user license agreement

There have been numerous attempts to make fun of EULAs that are not read, for example by including a provision to sell the user's soul to the company, or a stipulation to not use digital audio workstation software in the development of missiles or nuclear weapons.

The underlying ideas or algorithms are not protected by copyright law, but are often treated as a trade secret and concealed by such methods as non-disclosure agreements.

[7] Initially, end-user license agreement (EULAs) were printed on either the shrinkwrap packaging encasing the product (shrink wrap contract) or a piece of paper.

[9] Another type of license, browserwrap, intuits the user's consent after they simply visit a website and are made aware of the terms of use.

[16] EULAs, almost always offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis as a non-negotiable condition for using the software,[17][11] are very far from the prototypical contract where both parties fully understand the terms and agree of their own free will.

[23] Some EULAs restrict the ability of users to exercise copyright over derivative work made using the software, such as creative creations in the virtual worlds of video games.

[24][25] Although most video game EULAs assert that the developer holds the copyright on any user-generated content, this is contested by users and has not been tested in the court system.

[26] Legal scholar Anthony Michael Catton suggests that user-generated content should be considered jointly authored by the video game developers and the users.

[28] Traditionally, software was distributed in the form of binary object code that could not be understood or modified by the user,[1] but could be downloaded and run.

[33] Even if the user purchases a perpetual license, it is common for EULAs to allow unilateral termination by the vendor for any number of vague reasons or none at all.

[38] Most EULAs disclaim any liability for harms caused by the product,[39] and prevent the purchaser from accessing the court system to seek a remedy.

[43] Under the New Digital Content Directive effective since 2022 in the European Union, EULAs are only enforceable to the extent that they do not breach reasonable consumer expectations.

[45] The United Kingdom's National Consumer Council undertook a study published in 2008 which found issues with the way 17 major IT businesses had been using EULA's and asked the Office of Fair Trading to undertake an investigation.

[54] South Park parodied this in the episode "HumancentiPad", where Kyle had neglected to read the terms of service for his last iTunes update and therefore inadvertently agreed to have Apple employees experiment upon him.