I don’t have much sympathy for people who scroll to the bottom of an End User License Agreement (EULA) and click “OK” just to get on with it. I do have some because it is a legal document and people do tend to glaze over when reading those. But, if you have installed the Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta, it could be important if you suffer data loss.

Its EULA for AntiSpyware Beta contains a liquidated damages clause:

10. LIMITATION ON AND EXCLUSION OF DAMAGES. Microsoft’s liability under this agreement is limited. You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers your direct damages up to U.S. $5.00. You cannot recover any consequential damages, lost profits, special, indirect, or incidental damages from Microsoft and its suppliers. This limitation applies to:

• anything related to the software, services, content (including code) on third party Internet sites, or third party programs, and
• claims for breach of contract, breach of warranty, guarantee or condition, strict liability, negligence, or other tort to the extent permitted by applicable law.

It also applies even if Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages. [emphasis added]

Since I hadn’t installed it before reading a CNET News.com story on it, I downloaded a copy of the software myself and looked for it. The block quote above is what I found. Unfortunately, not everyone takes the time to even skim through the documents that they agree to using “click-wrap agreements.”

To prove the point that EULAs are widely ignored, PC Pitstop recently inserted a “special consideration” clause in its agreement that offered money to anyone who sent an e-mail to an address contained in the license…

[Read Those EULAs, continued]