Top EULA Gotchas: Website Fine-Print Hall of Shame
Long, confusing, and littered with jargon, end-user license agreements (EULAs) are all too easy to ignore. Instead of taking the time to read and understand the legalese, we just scroll to the bottom, click Accept, and get on with our lives. Did checking the “I agree” box have any consequences? Who cares, right? Gulp!
Of course, by ignoring the words of the agreement and clicking the button at the end, we may be agreeing to all kinds of unfair terms and conditions. If someone complains, companies can just point to their EULA and say, “too bad!” Here are some of the most common “gotchas” found inside EULAs and terms of service (TOS) statements, as well as which companies are guilty of tricking users.
Your Content Is Our Content
From Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: “You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License).”
If you print out a photo, the company that makes the photo paper doesn’t claim any rights to your work. But that’s exactly what some online services try to do when you store your content with them. Facebook, for instance, amended its Terms of Service in 2009 to claim broad rights to users’ content, such as photos and videos. Adobe tried to do the same with Photoshop Express in 2008. Both companies have since narrowed down their EULAs, but Facebook still says it can use your content for as long as it exists on your account.