Fine Print Says Game Store Owns Your Soul 262
mr_sifter writes "UK games retailer GameStation revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of customers, thanks to a clause it secretly added to the online terms and conditions for its website. The 'Immortal Soul Clause' was added as part of an attempt to highlight how few customers read the terms and conditions of an online sale. GameStation claims that 88 percent of customers did not read the clause, which gives legal ownership of the customer's soul over to the UK-based games retailer. The remaining 12 percent of customers however did notice the clause and clicked the relevant opt-out box, netting themselves a £5 GBP gift voucher in the process."
Re:Make it readable (Score:3, Informative)
The kind of thing that's never been tested in court
Except it has been tested in court. Many times.
Step-Saver Data Systems, Inc. v. Wyse Technology - EULA Invalid
Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd. - EULA Invalid
ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg - EULA valid
Microsoft v. Harmony Computers - EULA valid
Novell v. Network Trade Center - EULA valid
Re:Make it readable (Score:3, Informative)
These are all US court cases, and courts in the US are a lot less forgiving than the European when you sign an unreasonable contract.
In Norway for instance, it is generally assumed by lawyers (but untested) that EULAs can be ignored. Only proper SLAs and such constitute binding contracts.
So it kind of depends on which contry's laws you try it under.