Dear Forum,
I am distributing a freeware since many years now that I developed with Xojo and a company would lie to use it ans ask for an End User Licence Agreement.
Would anyone of you have an example of an EULA that I may modify and use ?
Note that my application is free but not open source .
Many thanks,
best,
Franck
Do you want legalese: use a lawyer. Even an EULA can be copyrighted. If you don’t want a lawyer: “do with the software what you will, it’s your own fault if your data is eaten by extraterrestrials”.
Freeware or not doesn’t really matter. And nobody reads EULAs anyways.
Just FYI - if this app is destined for the MAS, it will be rejected if you try to offer your own EULA.
I know this from personal experience 
This is what I use in the apps I give away. As Richard pointed out, the MAS will probably reject it but…
[quote]All rights are reserved by the author who expressly grants the following rights…
You may use this application to your heart’s content.
You may distribute this application freely as long as the copyright credit remains intact.
… and expressly imposes the following restrictions:
You may NOT charge for this application.
You may NOT post this application to any website or include it in any package that requires paid fees or charges (ISP fees excluded). [/quote]
Legal? Probably not but I am not charging for the app. Don’t forget to put the copyright notice in the window.
[quote=195394:@Richard Summers]Just FYI - if this app is destined for the MAS, it will be rejected if you try to offer your own EULA.
I know this from personal experience :)[/quote]
Not necessarily. Both of my MAS apps have a custom EULA that our lawyers created for our company and Apple approved.
[quote=195380:@Franck Perez]Dear Forum,
I am distributing a freeware since many years now that I developed with Xojo and a company would lie to use it ans ask for an End User License Agreement.
Would anyone of you have an example of an EULA that I may modify and use ?
Note that my application is free but not open source .
Many thanks,
best,
Franck[/quote]
Franck,
Here are a few open source licenses that you should read through first to determine if they work for you. I am personally using the BSD3-Clause License for my open source projects.
HTH
thanks to all for the feedback and for the links. I started to read around and look at some licences that come together with some free softwares.
I think that I may provide a simple paragraph like this one that comes with Onyx:
[quote]PLEASE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE. BY USING THE SOFTWARE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. SIGNIFY YOUR AGREEMENT TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE BY CLICKING THE “AGREE” BUTTON. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, CLICK “DISAGREE.”
xxx IS A DONATIONWARE (FREEWARE). IT’S A GRATIS APPLICATION FREELY USABLE. YOU MAY COPY AND DISTRIBUTE IT AT WILL. YOU CAN USE IT FOR AS LONG AS YOU WANT.
YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT USE OF THE ONYX SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY, AND EFFORT IS WITH YOU.
THE ONYX SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
IN NO EVENT SHALL I BE LIABLE FOR PERSONAL INJURY, OR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES OR LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE ONYX SOFTWARE, HOWEVER CAUSED.[/quote]
Did you know an EULA will not save you from any claims? It has little lawful value in many countries.
So if your app destroys a users data, he can still go to court and sue you. But changes are high no-one will ever do that eventually
[quote=196679:@Christoph De Vocht]Did you know an EULA will not save you from any claims? It has little lawful value in many countries.
So if your app destroys a users data, he can still go to court and sue you. But changes are high no-one will ever do that eventually :)[/quote]
Fiduciary duty usually begins with a commercial transaction. In the case of a freeware, which propagates freely over Internet repositories, accompanied with an EULA that states the As-Is, even experimental nature of the software, plus the frequently verified assumption that the author is such a small fish that suing him would cost more than ceasing his pair of smelly tennis shoes, foolhardy would be the lawyer going against an author who did not contractually sell the software and in fact did not transact at any time with the user.
To make it more complete I would tend to add some additional clause to such an EULA, like
[quote]This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of Buthan.
[/quote]
Any other gently exotic, remote and difficult to exercise the law in country will nicely do. I can just see the face of a lawyer in Century City, LA, trying to figure how he will request millions of dollars from a freeware author in a country where the average monthly revenue is about 50 cents.
Another interesting clause could be