End-User License Agreements
A licence agreement dictates the rights and responsibilities of both the producers and users with respect to the offering or use of a product.
Most notably, the agreement will spell out any restrictions that the producers impose on allowable uses of the product. Licence agreements will also include any mandatory disclosures about any of the producer’s policies or practices about which users are legally entitled to be aware.
Some examples of such disclosures include:
- Privacy policies about user data that is being collected and how it is being used
- Disclaimers about warranties or guarantees about the product
- Limitations on the producer’s liabilities should the user incur any damages from using the product
An end-user licence agreement is not a negotiated agreement between producers and users. The producer writes it and the user has a choice to either agree to the terms or not agree to the terms. The consequences of not agreeing to the terms is not being able to use (legally) the product or not having access to the service.
By agreeing to the terms, the user is making promises about how they will use the product. They may also be granting the owner or distributor of the product special rights - some of which might be surprising!
Licensor can use your data?
From social media networks to seemingly harmless quizzes, many of the online services used on a daily basis are aggressively collecting personal data and using it to deliver targeted ads or selling it to third parties.
The most prominent example is Facebook, a service whose profitability is built around utilizing user data and user content to generate targeted and personalized ads. These ads are based on a user’s gender, age, interests, and even their friends’ interests and likes. (Thinking of The Social Dilemma…)
By agreeing to use Facebook, users give the company the right to read, use, and retain all of the data submitted to the site, as well as the right to use any uploaded pictures and videos in any way it sees fit. To compound matters, deactivating or deleting an account does not end the company’s hold over that account’s data. The content is released from the Facebook licence only after every single user with whom the content was shared has deleted it!
Restrictions on uses and copies
Many retail software programs (for example, Adobe’s Acrobat PDF reader) place restrictions on the number of copies or versions of their program that a user can install under a single licence. This is typically one installation of the program per purchased copy of the program.
If you have multiple devices or if your workplace has multiple computers, separate copies or licences need to be purchased for each device, or you are violating copyright law. You can make a back-up copy of a purchased program but the backup copy cannot be actively used (unless it is replacing the original copy) and all copies must be destroyed if you cease to be the owner of the program copy.
Restrictions on transferring work
You might think that it is an inalienable right to take a purchased software program and sell it or present it to another person, but it isn’t.
In some cases, like for many Microsoft products, the licence agreement expressly forbids the transfer of the software to another computer. The only way to transfer the software to someone else is to sell to that person the actual computer on which the software is installed.
MICROSOFT OFFICE 2013 LICENCE AGREEMENT
“YOU MAY NOT TRANSFER THE SOFTWARE TO ANOTHER COMPUTER OR USER. YOU MAY TRANSFER THE SOFTWARE DIRECTLY TO A THIRD PARTY ONLY AS INSTALLED ON THE LICENCED COMPUTER, WITH THE CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY AND THIS AGREEMENT.”
Licensor can remove your content?
Another side effect of not owning the digital content that you buy is that it seems the content can be taken away.
Apple has the ability to disable purchased apps that are installed on iPhones. Microsoft can similarly disable purchased apps installed on a Windows device. Amazon has removed purchased books from customers’ Kindles. On at least one occasion, Amazon has terminated a user’s account and wiped clean the contents of the user’s Kindle device.
Amazon Conditions of Use
”Amazon.ca reserves the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders in its sole discretion.”
In all cases, the provider had the authority to revoke users’ licences to the content, through the end- user licence agreement. Somewhat more surprising is that these companies have the technical capability to reach into customers’ devices and disable or remove content - and that they are willing to do so.
Restrict Your Rights to Sue Licensor?
Another surprise is that some licence agreements restrict the user’s rights to sue the licensor.
Sony decided to add a new clause to the PlayStation 3 end-user agreement that limited users’ rights to sue the company. You can opt out, but only available to those users who were diligent enough to review the updated licence agreement thoroughly and act on it in a timely manner.