Your Rights Online: UCLUTA: The Shrink-Wrap License Law You Should Be Worried About Posted by jamie_k on Friday October 15, @09:30PM EDT from the by-reading-this-headline-you-agree dept. LawGeek writes "A proposed model law called UCLUTA would make shrink-wrap and click-through licenses enforceable in every state that adopts it, let vendors disable software remotely, and allow licenses to forbid publishing benchmarks or reviews. It is being considered in state legislatures right now, mostly without anyone noticing." Write your state representatives. Use paper. They read paper. Your Rights Online: UCLUTA: The Shrink-Wrap License Law You Should Be Worried About | Login/Create an Account | Top | 25 comments | Search Discussion Threshold: -1: 25 comments 0: 21 comments 1: 18 comments 2: 14 comments 3: 10 comments 4: 5 comments 5: 1 comments NestedFlatThreadedNo Comments Oldest FirstNewest FirstHighest Scores First The fine print: the following comments belong to whoever typed them. Dashdot takes no responsibility for them, and frankly, neither do most of the people who typed them. Remote disable by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @09:40PM EDT (#1) The remote disable provision terrifies me. A vendor gets into a billing dispute with my company and turns off our accounting software on the last day of the quarter? That's not a license, that's a hostage situation. [ Reply to This ] Re:Remote disable by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @10:04PM EDT (#3) Mod parent up! [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Remote disable by ByteBandit on Friday October 15, @10:15PM EDT (#4) (User Info) Did you even read the parent post? He said the opposite. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Remote disable by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @10:27PM EDT (#5) Whoosh. That was the sound of the joke going over your head. [ Reply to This | Parent ] No benchmarks by CoffeeCoder on Friday October 15, @09:47PM EDT (#2) (User Info) Banning benchmarks is the tell. If your product is good you want people publishing numbers. [ Reply to This ] Re:No benchmarks by modem_mike on Friday October 15, @10:54PM EDT (#7) (User Info) Source? My brother-in-law says otherwise, and he has a Pentode. [ Reply to This | Parent ] lol by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @10:35PM EDT (#6) lol [ Reply to This ] Re:lol by mp3_maniac on Saturday October 16, @12:09AM EDT (#14) (User Info) Don't feed the trolls. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Hmm, not so sure by crufty on Friday October 15, @11:01PM EDT (#8) (User Info) I'm not so sure this is good news. Every time someone says 'this will change everything', it changes about 3% of something. [ Reply to This ] Re:Hmm, not so sure by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 15, @11:30PM EDT (#10) Agreed. Couldn't have said it better myself. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Hmm, not so sure by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16, @12:24AM EDT (#15) You must be new here. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Hmm, not so sure by pitchfork_pete on Saturday October 16, @12:56AM EDT (#18) (User Info) Citation needed. Where are you getting these numbers? [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Hmm, not so sure by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16, @12:39AM EDT (#16) No, that's not how any of this works. Please read the FAQ before posting. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Year 2000 by DaemonDiva on Friday October 15, @11:11PM EDT (#9) (User Info) Just wait until January. Then we'll see who's laughing. (Probably everyone. The answer is probably everyone.) [ Reply to This ] Re:Year 2000 by GrumpyGreybeard on Friday October 15, @11:49PM EDT (#12) (User Info) Real men use a magnetized needle and a steady hand. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Interesting, but... by ladybug_lisp on Friday October 15, @11:32PM EDT (#11) (User Info) This is interesting, but I think the article misses the bigger picture. Technology like this only matters when it gets cheap enough for ordinary people. Until then it's a toy for people who read Dashdot. Which, admittedly, is us. [ Reply to This ] Free software exemption? by MarkupMarcy on Saturday October 16, @12:02AM EDT (#13) (User Info) How does this interact with the GPL? The GPL relies on copyright law, not on contract. Could UCLUTA actually help or hurt free software? Any lawyers in the house? [ Reply to This ] Re:Free software exemption? by jamie_k on Saturday October 16, @01:11AM EDT (#19) (User Info) Actually, that's a common misconception. The spec explicitly allows it; it's the vendors who didn't implement it. [ Reply to This | Parent ] Re:Free software exemption? by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16, @01:51AM EDT (#25) You're both wrong, and I'm going to explain why in a post that's way too long for anyone to read. Paragraph one: ... [ Reply to This | Parent ] Microwave by GeckoGuy on Saturday October 16, @12:46AM EDT (#17) (User Info) My microwave has more processing power than the computer that went to the moon, and it still can't figure out popcorn. [ Reply to This ] Offtopic, but by UpgradeUma on Saturday October 16, @01:14AM EDT (#20) (User Info) Offtopic, but does anyone know how to get a Sound Blaster 16 working under the new kernel? It just beeps at me. Rhythmically. [ Reply to This ] Karma by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16, @01:24AM EDT (#21) I'm posting this to burn karma. Please mod me down so I can feel something. [ Reply to This ] Hype by NavNerd on Saturday October 16, @01:27AM EDT (#22) (User Info) The hype-to-substance ratio on this one is pretty high. Let's see it running in production before we all get excited. [ Reply to This ] Slashdotted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 16, @01:28AM EDT (#23) Site's already slashdotted. Er, dashdotted. Anyone have a mirror? [ Reply to This ] Links by mp3_maniac on Saturday October 16, @01:41AM EDT (#24) (User Info) For anyone who wants to read more, the original announcement is on their site and there's a good technical write-up in the newsgroups. Search for it, the link is too long to paste. [ Reply to This ]

Your code compiles. Do not ask why. Simply accept the gift. [ home | awards | supporters | grits' homepage | contribute story | older articles | overandover.net | advertising | past polls | topics | about | jobs | hof ] Trademarks belong to whoever trademarked them. Comments belong to whoever typed them. Everything else © 1997-99 Overandover.net. Dashdot is served hot by KoldFusion 4.5 from Gibson Mainframe Co.