Multiple Advocacy Agents Fight Back
Last week several geek-worthy causes floated across our desk. The first, via Boing Boing, is ReasonableAgreement.org. Despite having an unreasonably long name, ReasonableAgreement (hereafter referred to as R.A.) nobly highlights the insanity that End User License Agreements (hereafter referred to as EULA’s) have become. From the site:
As you move through space, as you look at the Web, when you buy things, when you travel, it’s increasingly the case that you end up making “agreements” to give up your rights. For example, by installing software, you might give up the right to sue the company that made it if it didn’t work. Or by subscribing to an online music service, you might give up your right to loan the songs you buy to a friend. When you install a game like World of Warcraft, you agree to install spyware on your computer. When you sign your credit-card slip at Best Buy or Fry’s, you waive all kinds of rights you get under consumer protection law.
The propoganda spout also has T-shirts; a part of every sale goes to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. More on the ReasonableAgreement.org website.
The second organization is Entertainment Consumers Association (or ECA) which has been running ads in online publications like the Escapist for Right2Game.org. The ads carry the eye popping line:
Politicians consider video games to be as dangerous as guns and narcotics. And they’re spending $90 million to prove it.
While I support the intent of the site (Utah’s saner politicians - not an oxymoron - had to reject a ‘Games as Porn’ bill for the third time this week despite sponsors vowing to continue) I am cautious of its backing. Unlike a grassroots movement (like R.A.) the ECA has Chase Banks and Hyatt Hotels on their sponsors page. I can’t even fathom a reason - altruistic, nefarious, or otherwise - why those places would give two shakes of a money purse. Can you?
