Prior Posts – Pro CD
Zeidenberg and Reality
With regards to shrinkwrap licenses the court gets one fundamental thing wrong. Clearly this judge has never tried to return software to a store when the package has been opened. No store that I’m aware of allows software to be returned once the tape on the box has been broken. Even if a software company would independently reimburse you for the price you paid, they certainly don’t describe any method to get that money back, so effectively there is in fact no way to back out of this blind contract like there is for things like the insurance that the judge cites. So shouldn’t courts force stores to allow returns of opened software
—- If we were to value efficiency (like J. Easterbrook), the law should (shouldn’t it?) require the store to act as intermediary, taking back the cd’s, to save the customer’s costs of tracking down the manufacturer, etc. This rule would lead to negotiations between the store and the manufacturer about return policies, if not the terms of the underlying license.
—–Your insight also might lead you to think of litigation. For one example, see http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/2004/12/21.html