EULAscan: community-written EULA reviews

Commercial software, even free software, when first installed most always presents you with an End User License Agreement (EULA, pronounced like "YOO-la") that you accept by clicking a button. Most people click right through without reading the EULA. I sometimes scan the EULA, depending on whether I paid money for the software or how long it is or what the nature of the application is. Still, I have skipped right over reading many a EULA and clicked the accept button without thinking twice.

Usually EULAs are just a boring formality. Sometimes there are interesting legal limitations that commercial software vendors try to impose by forcing you to accept their EULA in order to install the software. For example, some app server companies used to have clauses in their EULAs prohibting the use of their software for performance benchmarks, or preventing the release of benchmark numbers without consent of the vendor. Thus competitors would be prohibited from publically releasing performance comparisons.

For those who don't read their EULAs and don't want to but are interested in what they say there is a Web site dedicated to posting and reading comments about specific EULAs: EULAscan. You enter a software product name in the search field and see what returns.

There are a few major software companies and products in the database at EULAscan, but not a lot of reviews yet.