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[dennislp3]

also all these distribution things...as its noted many companies actually have their own, is just each companies way to put their software on your computer with their rules.

Steam works because it has a one size fits all policy...IE being such a large distributor they have to have a less specific and shady as shit EULA than a company would have to give for its own distribution software. Take Origins for example...

They take all there games of steam with its generalized and "non rape you for everything you have to play our games" EULA and replace it with this which allows them FULL access to your computer...

they take your money for the game, then they take all your information they can possibly pick up off there computers, then they sell it to whomever the hell they want....God only knows where it goes from here (or hell..what they truly take for that matter)

[Neonivek]

No one notices this stuff in the EULA.

I mean has anyone actually read the EULA for Neverwinter nights 2? It explicitly talks about Spyware.

[Darkmere]

I didn't know there was a thread in General Discussion, but I tend to avoid that place so I think I'll just stick with mine.

I'm curious just how many people will gleefully shell out for games over this, though. We can hate it all we want, but you guys know a whole lot of people will use this thing, at least for a while. If I hadn't run across the article I'd have gotten Mass Effect 3 without a second thought. Now, not as much. At least not with this corporate spyware enabled.

[Rakonas]

Well there goes my hopes for Battlefield 3.
I hope that some crazy bastard goes on a terrorism spree against EA for their retardation.

[Sirian]

From what i read, it's not about scanning your hard drive and taking whatever they feel like, it says "technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware".

Sure you could twist the meaning of this but i don't think it's really that bad. Not that i approve forcing this upon their customers, but as far as i know, EULAs arent law, and if they try to justify crazy things with it, they will face legal action.

[Neonivek]

From what i read, it's not about scanning your hard drive and taking whatever they feel like, it says "technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware".

Sure you could twist the meaning of this but i don't think it's really that bad. Not that i approve forcing this upon their customers, but as far as i know, EULAs arent law, and if they try to justify crazy things with it, they will face legal action.

There is this Quasi-Lawyer who frequents this board who says EULAs are legally binding in the USA.

Though I still have to question him.

[Darkmere]

From what i read, it's not about scanning your hard drive and taking whatever they feel like, it says "technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware".

Sure you could twist the meaning of this but i don't think it's really that bad. Not that i approve forcing this upon their customers, but as far as i know, EULAs arent law, and if they try to justify crazy things with it, they will face legal action.

I understand that data collection and selling is pretty standard. I'm not a fan of it but that's the way things are, and as long as there's a sensible opt-out (at least) or opt-in (preferred) that's not a big deal. I don't like that they don't specify that they can only search particular locations or search for information only related to their products. I don't like that there's no opt-out of data collection, and I especially don't like that their terms are mandatory if you want to legally play their games.

These documents are carefully constructed to be very specific, things like that aren't accidentally left out or generally dumped in without some reason.

[G-Flex]

I understand that data collection and selling is pretty standard. I'm not a fan of it but that's the way things are, and as long as there's a sensible opt-out (at least) or opt-in (preferred) that's not a big deal. I don't like that they don't specify that they can only search particular locations or search for information only related to their products. I don't like that there's no opt-out of data collection, and I especially don't like that their terms are mandatory if you want to legally play their games.

They also specify that they can search for "illegally-downloaded materials", which doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense and I'm not sure how they'd go about doing that.

[dennislp3]

they do it (I assume) by looking at hash information of files...they look up the hash of the top downloaded torrents and search your files for one of the same hash...the only solid evidence they can get you with technically

[Matz05]

Even thats not solid.

[dennislp3]

how much more solid can you get? A files hash is essentially its fingerprint...the cases where people got sued for piracy usually has file hashes submitted as evidence.

[Jifodus]

It actually looks like your standard Anti-Cheat software clause.  I've read the ones for VAC, PunkBuster, Warden, GameGuard, and several others, I don't particularly enjoy software that assumes I'm a cheater, but since there's a fairly large population of cheaters, I live with it.

ETA: Normally the clauses are in the games that use the Anti-Cheat software, not the distribution platforms.  So it's possible that EA just decided to tie an anti-cheat software to their Origin client.

[Matz05]

Having a file does not mean you don't own licence it. Often quite the contrary!

[Roboboy33]

How do you know if you have origin installed or what games use it?

[Roboboy33]

Note to self: never buy any EA games