Civ4 copy protection: Starforce or not?

[H Tower]

Originally posted by MeaCulpa
Screw EULA. In order to bindingly accept any terms, you have to know them when you buy. Which you don't; you only learn about them when you have opened the package and are installing.

Where did you get that idea from? Can you link to a court case?

[sophist]

I think he's making the common mistake that many do of thinking the law makes sense.

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by sophist
I think he's making the common mistake that many do of thinking the law makes sense.

QFT

although i will say there is something that says if you break the seal to read a agreement (that becomes binding on breaking the seal),it is nulled...legal battles are not my thing,so i couldnt discuss details

[MeaCulpa]

I think there might be a misunderstanding here. I am not talking about any US law, but German law; I guess I didn't stress this sufficiently in my original posting. If you are still interested or think I am confused, let me know. Although I am not working in any law-related business, I will do my best to clear things up.

A comparable circumstance are the "general terms and conditions", in which the vendor can state some details of the deal, i.e. warranty, partial delivery,.... However, the customer has to be able to take a look at them before the purchase. As a consequence, there are court decisions that it is not enough if they are printed on the back of the bill, as you usually get the receipe after the deal is done. "Hiding" them (e.g. at the wall behind the clerk at the cash desk) is not valid either. So all stores have them presented somewhere in the customer area. I think the mere situation is pretty similar to EULA, although I have no knowledge of any case where it has ever been a subject. They are just ignored by both sides.

[Unspeakable Horror]

Copy protection does not make life harder for pirates, but for everyone else.

True, and Starforce was defeated by some russian group a few weeks ago anyway. But IIRC it works on certain CD Drives only and it might have some other problems.

[H Tower]

Originally posted by MeaCulpa
A comparable circumstance are the "general terms and conditions", in which the vendor can state some details of the deal, i.e. warranty, partial delivery,.... However, the customer has to be able to take a look at them before the purchase. As a consequence, there are court decisions that it is not enough if they are printed on the back of the bill, as you usually get the receipe after the deal is done. "Hiding" them (e.g. at the wall behind the clerk at the cash desk) is not valid either. So all stores have them presented somewhere in the customer area. I think the mere situation is pretty similar to EULA, although I have no knowledge of any case where it has ever been a subject. They are just ignored by both sides.

Comparable rarely counts in a court of law. Without broad court specification that EULA's are not legally binding, expect to go to court if a company believes you are violating the legal agreement you clicked yes too.