I was hearing a lot about people getting scammed into downloading spy-ware by sneaking it in to the licensing agreement. The other day I came across a cool program that lets you browse tour dates for your favorite bands. Browsing through the agreement, I came across this:

THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Let that sink in for a sec…. okay.

HOW CAN SOMEONE POSSIBLY USE A TOUR DATE-SEEKING PROGRAM TO OPERATE A LIFE SUPPORT MACHINE???

You see, this is why people don’t read user-licensing agreements. The companies try to make the user agreements as long as possible so they can sneak in obscure details about the program, like, “To use this software, you must sacrifice your first born” or something like that. Since all of the agreements practically look alike and start to get longer and longer, people have stopped reading them… and that’s dangerous.

This is my advice to you: spend 5 minutes before installing that questionable program pouring over that agreement. It’s not worth the spy-ware. And maybe you’ll come across something funny like I did.

Edit: Orange Lounge Radio To Go Plugged this blog entry! That’s awesome!