Cya later Jewel Knights

Visual Novel Community Archive, 2000-2009
#21

Just thought I’d throw my words into this.

Previously, I’d signed a contract that had a no-compete agreement written into it. It stated that after I ended my relationship with the contracted company, I couldn’t work for any competing business for the next FIVE years.

Now, keep in mind, this is a signed, notarized contract, with my name on it.

Three months ago I parted ways with that company, and under State and US law (Right to Work law, in this case) the contract was considered to not be admissible as legally binding.

While you may be thinking “Huh, what does this have to do with a EULA?” My point is that even with a real contract (Signed and Notarized) it does point out that if an agreement is extremely unfair, it isn’t always legal/binding.

Look at any PS2 manual, and you’ll see they say it’s illegal to modify the console in any way.

When looking at such an agreement from a legal standing, unless they made you sign a contract upon purchasing the console, that agreement is considered null under US law.

It’s the same kind of thing with a EULA.

#22
quote:
Originally posted by Kalzin:
Just thought I'd throw my words into this.

Previously, I'd signed a contract that had a no-compete agreement written into it. It stated that after I ended my relationship with the contracted company, I couldn't work for any competing business for the next FIVE years.

Now, keep in mind, this is a signed, notarized contract, with my name on it.

Three months ago I parted ways with that company, and under State and US law (Right to Work law, in this case) the contract was considered to not be admissible as legally binding.

While you may be thinking "Huh, what does this have to do with a EULA?" My point is that even with a real contract (Signed and Notarized) it does point out that if an agreement is extremely unfair, it isn't always legal/binding.

Look at any PS2 manual, and you'll see they say it's illegal to modify the console in any way.

When looking at such an agreement from a legal standing, unless they made you sign a contract upon purchasing the console, that agreement is considered null under US law.

It's the same kind of thing with a EULA.

Let me throw in a clarification on notarizations. When you get a document notarized, what does the notary do? He/she looks at the document, requests your legal identification (i.e. state driver's license), and have you sign the document in front of the notary. Then the notary fills out the notary part of the document, and stamps his/her seal. What the notary does is to CONFIRM the identity of the person signing the document. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. The notary doesn't make the document legal or enforceable, if it isn't to begin with. But the notarization process is required by courts for authentication purposes; otherwise, you would have documents floating around with forged signatures.

#23
quote:
Originally posted by Kalzin:

Previously, I'd signed a contract that had a no-compete agreement written into it. It stated that after I ended my relationship with the contracted company, I couldn't work for any competing business for the next FIVE years.

LOL
I had a similar experience. A guy had me sign a contract that I wouldn't compete in a 100 MILE radius. This was in Colorado, so this would have meant I wouldn't be able to work in 1/3 of the state. I signed laughing because: 1) I was going to move away anyway, 2) No sane judge in the world would uphold such a contract.

I suspect that any EULA that puts too much burden on innocent and law abiding software owners would also be thrown out as being unreasonable.

#24