Flambeaux ain't just whistlin' Dixie when he warns about reading EULAs. Please notice the recent misdemeanor conviction of Missourian Lori Drewfor creating a bogus MySpace account. That's right, by her knowingly violating the terms of an agreement (helloooooo .. that's a contract between a business and an inDUHvidual!), a jury was convinced by a prosecutor that the woman had committed a crime.* If the conviction stands, then anyone who's ever violated the terms of an EULA, has committed a misdemeanor.Flambeaux wrote:Also, be wary as some of the free blog services assert that they own whatever you publish using their software. If you're concerned about IP, it just seems the safer course of action, from my POV, to read the EULA and decide accordingly.
An ounce of prevention and all that.
But, for the record, IANAL.
If you all turn yourselves in now, The Man my go lenient on your lying ass.
*Okay, we all know that the jury really convicted her because she's a heinous bitch that thought it was funny that her daughter and daughter's friend were emotionally torturing a depressed 13 year old girl. Yeah, Lori Drew is truly an effin' waste of skin, but she was convicted of the wrong crime, and that has consequences for the rest of us. The federal prosecutor and judge for the case should hold their chickenshite heads in shame for what they've done. Hopefully, the judge will grant the motion for a directed verdict of "not guilty" and end the farce. If not, hopefully the appeals court will do the right thing.
IANAL, but shouldn't the slag have been extradited to the state where the girl died and the local DA's office taken their chances on some type of reckless endangerment charge? I know it's a stretch to go from cruelly punkin' a minor on-line and possibly being responsible for contributing to that minor's suicide, but is it any less of a stretch to say that a private person violating a business contract is a federal crime?
