EULA Concerns

[TroopaH]

Hi,

I recently purchased Oxygen Not Included on Steam and when the EULA popped up after I clicked install I actually read it. There are a few bits in there that bother me, largely covered by Carni and Winter in the following Steam thread about the Invisible Inc EULA here, but particularly clause 14, regarding monitoring the RAM on my computer. Klei-JoeW's response here with a revised EULA does a lot to allay those concerns and make you guys seem a lot more reasonable than a first reading of the Oxygen Not Included EULA would suggest though. I guess what I'd like to know is whether there are any plans in the pipeline to make a similar revision to the Oxygen Not Included EULA?

Normally I'd ask about something like this via email but I'm writing this in public so It's searchable in case anyone else is interested. When I was looking for details on what the RAM monitoring clause was meant to cover the Invisible Inc thread was the only relevant hit I got.

Thanks.

[Slvrsrfr]

interesting. thank you.

[SharraShimada]

EULA are a pain in the a**. 

For example:

5.Jurisdication. This agreement is governed exclusively by British Columbia law. The courts of British Columbia, Canada, have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes regarding this agreement or the Game.

 

Thats illegal in Germany. Its not punished by law, but it cant be enforced in Germany. One has always the right to bring the dispute to a local court. It does not matter, the EULA states to limit it to a certain court, because it violates the rights of the german user in general. So the chapter just dont apply in Germany.

[TheJollyKraut]

EULAs in general are void in Germany, just saying.

[JoeW]

This is in reference to:

Spoiler

14. Consent to Monitoring
When you are using the Game, the Game may monitor your computer’s random access memory (RAM) for unauthorized third-party programs that interact with the Game and are prohibited by this Agreement. If the Game detects an unauthorized third-party program, the Game may, without notice to you, communicate that information to us, including your Account information, your internet protocol (IP) address, details about the unauthorized third-party program, and the time and date that the unauthorized third-party program was detected. If the Game detects the use of an unauthorized third-party program, your access to the Game may be terminated. You hereby consent to this monitoring.

Yeah, I will see what we can do about that. We have never done this and I doubt we ever plan too, but lawyers like to have this because it covers us if we ever needed to in the future. 

At the least I can tell you that if we were to ever start doing something like this we would let everybody know specifically that it was being done and why. But Oxygen Not Included is not the type of game where I could see it would ever be needed. 

[nonchip]

On 8/14/2018 at 1:37 AM, TheJollyKraut said:

EULAs in general are void in Germany, just saying.

um no, they are not, they are even required, it's called AGB.

just most of the stuff people put in their EULAs is void.

[SharraShimada]

48 minutes ago, nonchip said:

um no, they are not, they are even required, it's called AGB.

just most of the stuff people put in their EULAs is void.

AGB are not required. You can use them, if you want to implenent certain general rights and dutys (for both sides). If you dont use them, everything is treated by standards of current laws. 

[nonchip]

5 minutes ago, SharraShimada said:

AGB are not required. You can use them, if you want to implenent certain general rights and dutys (for both sides). If you dont use them, everything is treated by standards of current laws. 

https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__305.html (1) sentence 1. they are required (or implicitely result from being used even if you don't put them into a seperate AGB document) as long as you plan to use the same contract clauses in many different contracts. which according to courts applies at more than 3 contracts. so as soon as you want anything else than just the applicable laws (which is the whole reason to have contracts after all) when e.g. selling a game to thousands of people (as is the case here) you need them (as they did with their EULA). so no, EULAs are definitely not void but the norm.

 

pretty much the only case where you don't have AGBs is when you sell something to someone as a one time thing.