Monday, August 18, 2008

The usual yada yada

Who reads the fine print in license agreements? I have to admit I don't do it as much as I used to (unless it's for some major component). Why would this be? Maybe
  • There aren't as many as there used to be, because more software is open source.
  • There aren't as many as there used to be, because outside open source, there aren't as many companies producing software.
  • No one believes that a really heinous license agreement would stand up anyway, so you might as well just click "Accept" and behave reasonably after that.
  • When you click "Accept", you're really saying "I trust the people I'm getting this from" and most of the time it's a well-established name.
  • Everyone else does, so even if it's a mistake, you're in good company.
Whatever the reason, it seems like it's part of the culture now, so much so that Google made a point of saying "This isn't the usual yada yada" (or words to that effect) when it knew one of its agreements was out of the ordinary.

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