Comment by Hizonner
8 hours ago
Actually, no, because you didn't intentionally accept the terms, and you had no reason to expect that your cat would jump on there in exactly that way.
On the other hand, if you take a laser and intentionally induce the cat to push the key, then you are bound.
> If licenses are valid in any way (the argument is they get you out of the copyright infringement caused by copying the software from disk to memory) then it's your job to go find the license to software you use and make sure you agree to it; the little popup is just a nice way to make your aware of the terms.
The way you set up the scenario, the user has no reason to even know that they're using this new version with this new license. An update has happened without their knowledge. So far as they know, they're running the old software under the old license.
You could make an equally good argument that whoever wrote the software installed software on the user's computer without the user's permission. If it's the user's fault that a cat might jump on the keyboard, why isn't it equally the software provider's fault?
... but the reality is that, taking your description at face value, nobody has done anything. The user had no expectation or intention of installing the software or accepting the new license, and the software provider had no expectation or intention of installing it without user permission, and they were both actually fairly reasonable in their expectations. Unfortunately shit happens.
The real question is what a judge would accept. I can't imagine any judge accepting "my cat did it".
Yeah. Would a reasonable person familiar with software think that there was no license agreement on the software? That's what would be litigated. "My client has only ever used GNU GPL software, he didn't know it was possible to sell software with terms and conditions imposed upon the end user." Maybe that's convincing, but probably not. That's why juries exist.
... only because you'd have no evidence of it. From a legal point of view, the question is what would come down if the judge were (somehow) convinced that it actually happened that way. Actually if a "perfect" judge were so convinced.
Probably a real judge would want to say something like "Why are all of you bozos in my courtroom wasting public money with some two-bit shrinkwrap bullshit? I was good at surfing. I could have gone pro. I hate my life..."
>I could have gone pro. I hate my life..
proceeds to write a 75 page diss and bill taxpayers for that