Do you read the EULA?

With the lengthy thread regarding software piracy in mind, I thought it might be interesting to know how many people truly know whether they are software pirates.

So, do you read the EULA?

"I Agree" - *click*

They put it on a splash screen, which means you've already opened and installed the software, which means it's not returnable. Whatcha gonna do? Click "ACCEPT" and realize it's just a bunch of ass-covering busy-work for their respective legal departments.

One person got a rather large sum of cash for his efforts when one company, realizing that basically no one ever read it, gave directions in the EULA on how someone who did so could claim that cash, so that the positive aspect. :-)

More seriously, the point is protecting your rights as a consumer. These companies are getting away with more and more abuses for the very simple reason that almost no one knows to what they are agreeing by using a piece of software. Yeah, you've already bought and paid for it, but you might be surprised at what is in some of them, things like granting the copyright holder complete access to your system to automatically install any other software it deems necessary to its operation when the software is installed. You take a hit financially by not using softare for which you've just purchased a license (although means do exist to get a refund when you do not agree to the terms of a EULA, just not ones anyone in their right mind wants to bother completing) but you protect your system, and you also gain knowledge of which companies you should avoid in the future.

Furthermore, with the thread that inspired this in mind, the point is understanding what the term "pirate" really means in the eyes of corporate software manufacturers before going out and incorporating the corporate-speak as a part of our language and condemning the amorphous "pirate" wholesale.