The Catoosa County News

Do I need to read the EULA?

- DWIGHT WATT Dwight Watt does computer work for businesses, individual­s and organizati­ons and teaches about computers at a college in Northwest Georgia. His website is www. dwightwatt.com. His email address is dwight@ dwightwatt.com.

The End User License Agreement (EULA) is a legal document. It is strongly encouraged you read the agreement before checking the box to agree. The agreement tells you your rights in case the product is not what you want, or it does not perform up to your standards. The agreement tells you what the software or hardware company will provide for you. It usually tells you whether you have transfer rights to your copy of the software or hardware.

For instance, Palo Alto firewall equipment cannot be used unless you purchase a maintenanc­e agreement with them, and you must have ownership. They design their equipment that if you do not have a current maintenanc­e agreement, about all year equipment can be used for is a doorstop.

Some software licenses show they are freeware, and you can distribute however you want and make copies. Other software allows you to make one copy as a backup and that is it. Others allow no backup. A few years ago, Microsoft office

started letting people have 5 copies on desktops or laptops and 5 copies on mobile devices. They put it in the EULA but did not publicize and people were surprised when they found that.

Some software EULAS include Easter Eggs in them, which is where they add something as a pleasant surprise. I think it was Superantis­pyware a free years ago who did this.

I would encourage you to always look at the EULAS before clicking accept so you know what fees you may encounter in future and what you may or may not do to protect your investment with a backup.

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