Unlocking eSignature Legitimacy for End User License Agreement in Australia

How to eSign a document: eSignature legitimacy for End User License Agreement in Australia

[Music] and user license agreements the bastard brainchild of corporate lawyers and the makers have been possible to open plastic packaging we've all seen these things called end-user license agreements or EULA's or rather we haven't seen them they're the things we click to get rid of so we can get to the really important business of puppy burrito photos on Instagram just listen to this presentation at Google about EULA's how many people read license agreements when you software this really surprised me so no he here reads license agreements ever great these are some of the smartest software engineers and even they don't read before clicking agree the last time someone agreed without reading the text first Harrison Ford ended up in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bad choice my friend next time read the script it's not just that people don't read Eli's they can't read them EULA's are lengthy and boring and tedious they're basically season 14 of Grey's Anatomy you're done folks you were done when you killed off in training you're done ing to one study it would take two hundred and forty-four hours a year just to read all the privacy policies you accept and that's only one type of agreement you encounter every day in two hundred and forty four hours you could binge watch the entirety of friends three times in a row Ross and Rachel would have broken up and gotten back together 12 times before you finish reading those policies and yes they were on a break privacy policies are also relatively short usually just a pager to compare that to Apple's iTunes EULA consumers guide to iTunes its new 56-page Terms of Use who is gonna read through all of that and if you did would you even understand it exactly no one is going to understand a 56 page EULA the instructions for monopoly are only eight pages long and no one's read the whole thing I'm talking to you a little bit take the hotel off center Avenue take it off it's not a return in fact the British company game station ran an April Fool's Day joke of inserting into its EULA a term requiring customers to hand over their immortal souls to the company 7500 people of green 7500 in mortal Souls sold to a company that sells sci-fi games about aliens take that Scientology now because no one reads EULA's companies feel free to put all sorts of bizarre and ridiculous terms in them Apple for example states that you are not allowed to use iTunes for making nuclear missiles or chemical or biological weapons and remix OS a type of Android operating system once included terms in its EULA warning users against spreading rumor disturbing social order undermining stability those are terms that belong less than a software contract and more in mouths little red book but EULA's aren't just harmless jokes about immortal souls in large part they're about controlling you for the consumers ordinarily when you buy something you can do what you want with it if I buy a USB flash drive I can give it to my friends I can throw it away I can fix it if it breaks I can even slap on a mini statuette of Justin Bieber and I'm not even sorry that's what we mean by ownership but companies don't care about those rights in fact they're perfectly happy to get rid of them why should I get to make my own custom flash drive when I could pay good money for the authorised licensed limited edition beaver driver I'll bet it seems too in fact cutting off your consumer rights is the very reason that EULA's exists here's an interview with Seymour Rubenstein who claims to be the inventor of the EULA well the way I thought of it is that thought about it so just like phonograph records right you're on the record but you didn't know the song right and so it on the soft way oh the you know me copy of the software now putting aside that the creator of the bane of everyone's existence is basically John Lithgow is creepy third uncle he's got a point if the company can use a EULA to cut off your ordinary consumer rights then the company has all sorts of power to control things so the question is does this trickery actually work can a company use a EULA to say you don't own that product you bought and you have to use it the way we want it turns out in just a few days the Supreme Court will be hearing a case about this the case is called impression products versus Lexmark International Lexmark makes printers and it wants to make sure that when you buy a printer you have to come back to buy ink and supplies but when you buy an ink cartridge you'd think you own it you can do things like say refill it with ink so Lexmark sells us ink cartridges with an agreement a EULA prohibiting you from refilling or even reselling their ink cartridges and if you violate those terms Lexmark says you're actually violating its patents which could put you on the hook for massive damages and who is this impression products company that Lexmark decided to suit some giant corporate behemoth impression products is a family-owned business headquartered out of Charleston West Virginia my father started the company Walter Smith and 1978 the small family company is in the fight of its life for refilling ink cartridges that it legally purchased imagine if you owned a car and could be sued for refilling the gas tank with the wrong brand of gasoline or if you own one of these highly collectible duck dynasty Chia Pets if I want to grow alfalfa on Willie Robertson's beard it's my god-given right to do so and no one indeed if Lexmark and insular conditions prevail it could have widespread effects for repair shops resellers and all consumers as impression products attorney explains here the question is whether or not there can be resale markets for patented Goods and that includes virtually anything that includes cars cellphones any equipment that companies buy and use in their production if flex marks rule is correct the seller of those Goods can say once you purchase it you don't have the right to resell it on the open market or you don't have the right to repair it and the point is those are rights that are really important to everyone they seem especially important to this one video blogger the moment you sell me something I should be able to do whatever the I want with it and user license agreements are the devil they should be banned maybe that sounds a bit harsh but comparing us to the devil isn't that far off when EULA sometimes claim your immortal soul it's not just patent law that companies used to strip your ownership rights for years they've used a part of the copyright law section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to make it a felony to repair or use your stuff in ways that they don't want John Deere the tractor company has actually threatened farmers who dared to repair their own tractors but if there's anyone you don't want to piss off it's people who own pitchforks and heavy machinery so while we wait for the Supreme Court to decide the impression products case what can you do to protect yourself from EULA's starters you can try to not be like this guy you just go agree agree agree don't do that don't be that guy but more importantly we think it's time for consumers to fight back against us so tonight we are proud to present the consumers counter license agreement because somewhere out there there has to be a software company or printer manufacturer or corporate lawyer watching this if you're one of them this is for you by watching this video you agree to the following terms and conditions if you do not agree to these terms then you should have stopped watching this video already and now it is too late you agree that the number and length of EULA's are too damn high you agree that no one should be may take 7 56 pages of terms that they couldn't possibly read all of you agree that I can grow whatever plant I want in my duck dynasty pfn you agree that terms and conditions written in legalese are unfair to consumers who don't want to spend two hundred forty-four hours a year reading them you agree that when I buy something I own it and you don't get to say how I use it with your ulis you agree that everyone should be allowed to repair their cars their tractors and their Justin Bieber flash drives and if agreed to this EULA sounds ridiculous to you then you should agree that the mountains of ulis forced upon the public are even more ridiculous [Music] thanks for agreeing to agree to this agreement now please go make your plastic packaging easier to open [Applause]