Illustrating how few people pay attention to the terms and conditions of anything, UK retailer GameStation— as part of an April Fool’s gag—added a line to the fine print of its website that granted the souls of agreeing customers to the merchant.
The “Immortal Soul Clause,” as detailed by Bit-Tech, was slipped into a GameStation online sale promotion. 88.0 percent of the website visitors did not notice the clause and effectively signed away rights to an immaterial part of themselves (that may or may not exist).
Those who did notice the clause, and opted out, were awarded a £5 gift voucher.
For its part, GameStation said that it would not enforce the clause and plans to issue nullifications via email to those who were duped.
All in all, 7,500 customers reportedly signed away their souls.
|Image: Appalachian Soul Snatcher from Flickr|
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Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
April 16, 2010
Posted in
Shout box
NyuRena: You nailed it James! Yikes..06/18/2013 - 1:56pm
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james_fudge: With MS willing to share with the government, an always listening device should give everyone pause.06/18/2013 - 1:37pm
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james_fudge: you can't turn off the Microphone on the Kinect and it has to be plugged in. It's not rocket science.06/18/2013 - 1:35pm
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E. Zachary Knight: The Humble Bundle Guys just don't like me having money in my pocket do they? https://www.humblebundle.com/06/18/2013 - 1:12pm
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E. Zachary Knight: CMiner, I know that my Android camera is off unless I am using an application that turns it on. Same with the microphone.06/18/2013 - 12:38pm
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CMiner: Can you turn off the camera on an iPhone? Like, -really- turn it off, not just change a setting that -tells- you the camera is off?06/18/2013 - 12:13pm
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james_fudge: when they make it a requirement, yes they are06/18/2013 - 12:10pm
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CMiner: I just don't think Microsoft bears any more (or less) responsibility for privacy with its Kinect camera than do the makers of laptops or smartphones with integrated cameras.06/18/2013 - 12:00pm
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Imautobot: The ability to operate the console without the camera is key. It's a peripheral, not directly integrated into the console, and yet it behaves as if it is. Thankfully I don't have kids, and won't have an Xbone either.06/18/2013 - 11:49am
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CMiner: Oh, I agree that the decision to make the kinect mandatory/always listening is terrible.06/18/2013 - 11:48am
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E. Zachary Knight: CMiner, and the easier the provider makes to do such things, the better. The fact that the XBone will not even funtion without it plugged in and turned on in some fashion makes a world of difference from a PC Webcam.06/18/2013 - 11:38am
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CMiner: It takes steps on the user's part to ensure 100% privacy (unplugging, uninstalling, putting tape over it, not putting it in the kid's rooms, etc)06/18/2013 - 11:29am
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CMiner: My point is that no webcam producing company can guarantee that no one will ever ever ever be able to access video from that webcam without your knowledge and permission06/18/2013 - 11:28am
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E. Zachary Knight: Of course at that point, you are still opening up yourself to Windows zero day vulnerabilities and back doors that they are happy to share with the government before Windows users.06/18/2013 - 11:26am
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E. Zachary Knight: Cminer, I don't because I wipe the OS and reinstall something more secure, Linux. Even still, just wiping the OS and reinstalling Windows fresh removes all the bloatware PC companies install.06/18/2013 - 11:26am
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E. Zachary Knight: I agree that the Kinect requirement of the XBone has my civil liberty senses tingling. Just another nail in the coffin for me.06/18/2013 - 11:25am
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E. Zachary Knight: Honestly, I wouldn't put anything with an integrated camera in my kids' rooms. You are just asking for trouble. Of course, I am not a fan of having tvs/videogames/computers in kids rooms in general.06/18/2013 - 11:24am
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CMiner: In the case of integrated webcams on laptops, do you have the same concern that people at Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc might be spying on you?06/18/2013 - 11:24am
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E. Zachary Knight: I love awesome indie devs. Incredipede is free if you run linux! http://www.incredipede.com/linux.html Thanks @ColinNorthway You're the best.06/18/2013 - 11:23am
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Imautobot: More creepy is that the Xbox Camera can see in the dark. Now we're in Buffalo Bill territory.06/18/2013 - 11:21am
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Comments
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Ctrl-Alt-Del have had the same thing in their footer fine print for ages now...
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Since I see the misconception thrown around a lot (and respecting jurisdiction of course) I thought I should mention that for the U.S. at least, EULAs are considered legally binding contracts so long as they pass the legal requirements surrounding contracts (this includes not violating any other laws).
There has been no ruling against *all* EULA contracts, only specific cases where the contract in question violated contract or other laws. There have also been several cases where EULAs have been held up by courts. In the US it's also relative to the specifc court district in question which way a case may go, unfortunate but true.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
...I'd sign away my soul in a contract. Surely some of the 88% that did sign it simply didn't care about ridding themselves of that pesky soul (like me)?
Funny story, though, hah.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I gotta say this was a clever april fools day joke.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I seem to recall a gaming magazine once doing a similar thing with its cover CD. The click-through EULA signed over the rights to your home, which was revealed in the following month's edition.
It's always worth reading the EULAs regardless of their legal standing. 30 seconds skimming paragraph by paragraph can tell you what sort of data the service will harvest from you/your computer, what they do with it, what the penalties are or may be for modding... that sort of thing.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
30 seconds? Have you seen how long some of those are? You're not gonna get much from too many of them, especially MMOGs, if you just spend 30 seconds on it. It can take that long just to scroll through some of them to the bottom so you can hit accept.
Saying that Jack Thompson is impotent is an insult to impotent men everywhere. They've got a whole assortment of drugs that can cure their condition; Jack, however...
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
True, but in the modern world, people hide behind the fact that they aren't legally binding to get away with whatever they want.
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You KILL Vampires. You don't DATE them.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I'd be more intrested to know how many people actually read those things.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
If the article is anything to go by, 12%
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I'm amazed it's as high as 12%... I can't think of ANYONE who reads those things. I mean, when faced with the choice of reading a long, dry, document full of the standard legalese, or playing that awesome new game you got, I can't think of anyone who would choose the former.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Assuming they were told of the 5 pound certificate right away it was probably lower. If it happened to me I would run to my friends and tell them to get to that site and decline the EULA for 5 pounds.
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Well, considering that TOS and EULAS are not considered legally binding contracts, I doubt Gamestation would be able to get the souls anyway. Besides, they're going into Lucifer's turf, and he's got a killer legal team.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Well, he DOES get most of the divorce attorneys.
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
and the defense lawyers, and the RIAA lawyers....