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Re:Software is eating the car by Buttons840 on Thursday June 10, 2021 @01:58PM (#27463510)
You know the dark pattern of presenting a license agreement over and over until it's accepted? I predict one day someone will make the argument in court that they always declined the EULA (perhaps the one in their car) hundreds of times, but one day accidentally brushed "accept" with their finger, and that doesn't constitute legal acceptance, especially since they've demonstrated an effort to decline the EULA, but because of dark patterns, they never can permanently reject the license.
Re:Software is eating the car by Judgmentality on Thursday June 10, 2021 @02:39PM (#27463962)
Fun fact - if you buy the car new, you may have the "option" of being presented with these choices before purchase. And you can actually refuse! The dealer will be confused as hell, but they are hell-bent on selling a new car, and will actually void it if possible. I know because I've done it. You don't want the weird spyware (OnStar, Carnet, etcetera)? After agreeing to buy the car, refuse to accept the terms (they legally require your signature for this), and they'll find a way to get around it. If they refuse then go buy a different car, because fuck those guys.

Obviously this will vary by manufacturer and feature, and it's getting harder as time goes on to remove this shit from your vehicle.

Re:Software is eating the car by at-fates-hands on Thursday June 10, 2021 @08:22PM (#27467794)
I thought I remember seeing some article on dashboard design and how distracting everything is now to driver. I thought I saw a quip in the article about how Honda was going to put out several 2021-2022 models that went back to some kind of really stripped down dashboard?
Re:Software is eating the car by worik on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:31PM (#27466704)
I thought (IANAL) that EULA with screeds of text and a "Accept" button have been ruled invalid (as in not enforceable in a court) many ties in most jurisdictions.

Am I wrong?

Re:Software is eating the car by kcolford on Thursday June 10, 2021 @11:14PM (#27468891)
This is certainly true in some jurisdictions (including Canada where my home country bias lies), but I don't think it's generally true everywhere in the US.
Re:Software is eating the car by duped on Thursday June 10, 2021 @02:52PM (#27464152)
If I'm the dark pattern developer I'm not logging when the EULA is accepted or how many times they declined it.
Re:Software is eating the car by JumpCrisscross on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:58PM (#27465013)
>If I'm the dark pattern developer I'm not logging when the EULA is accepted or how many times they declined it

This cuts both ways. If the user can show one case of their rejecting the EULA without it being logged, they can then make the claim--correctly or not--that they repeatedly rejected it. If the car refuses to work without the EULA being accepted or rejected, proof of its movement would be sufficient to show repeated rejection.

More pointedly, willfully hiding information like this could backfire massively with the courts or law enforcement.

Re:Software is eating the car by duped on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:40PM (#27465504)
There is hiding information and not collecting it to begin with.

    void handleEula()
    {
      auto eulaAccepted = readEulaAcceptedFile();
      if (!eulaAccepted)
        eulaAccepted = promptForEulaAcceptance();
      writeEulaFile(eulaAccepted);
    }
This function reads a file from disk and writes back to it every time. If filesystem write audits aren't enabled there is no way to determine if the most recent write of "true" was the only write.

> If the car refuses to work without the EULA being accepted or rejected, proof of its movement would be sufficient to show repeated rejection.

If the car refuses to work without the EULA being accepted then it wouldn't move. If some functionality was enabled or disabled by accepting the EULA then you would have to show that the functionality was never enabled based on secondhand sources... which would be difficult. Proving something didn't happen is infinitely more difficult than proving something did. Many systems are not designed to handle that level of introspection.

All I'm saying is that the cute legal theory of "I rejected this N times therefore that one time I accepted it is invalid" falls apart for me when I consider that the user would have to prove they never did something, except that one time. Good luck.

Re:Software is eating the car by lelanthran on Friday June 11, 2021 @03:16AM (#27470247)
> This function reads a file from disk and writes back to it every time. If filesystem write audits aren't enabled there is no way to determine if the most recent write of "true" was the only write.

Yet, that doesn't matter - all the user has to demonstrate in court is that rejecting a EULA causes it to come up again in the future, meaning that sooner or later it is going to get accidentally accepted.

Re:Software is eating the car by ClumsyPilot on Thursday June 10, 2021 @09:12PM (#27468173)
Judges are not idiots, and there is an "obligation to observe reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing".

Practices like this increase likelihood that the judge rules the entire agreement null and void for the entire userbase.

Re:Software is eating the car by IncRnd on Thursday June 10, 2021 @10:11PM (#27468578)
> ... falls apart for me when I consider that the user would have to prove they never did something, except that one time.

It falls apart for you, since you are the person trying to trick every single driver. It won't necessarily fall apart for a judge.

Re:Software is eating the car by _jal on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:06PM (#27465122)
Lawyers tend to love it when their opponents think they've found a cute legal hack.
Re:Software is eating the car by lamontcg on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:44PM (#27465553)
Most people don't seem to understand that the laws are interpreted by human beings that have spent their entire lives studying and applying the law.

Particularly us geeky folk often seem to think that you can find a buffer overflow exploit in the literal wording of the law and the judge will have to let you go. That usually isn't how it works (although the odd case where someone successfully exploits the actual verbiage in the law tends to make headlines and make it seem like that is how it works).

Re:Software is eating the car by jasonwatkinspdx on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:20PM (#27466564)
So much this. Judges tend to respond very poorly to "but you didn't say Simon Says" style arguments.
Re:Software is eating the car by numpad0 on Thursday June 10, 2021 @11:42PM (#27469046)
How can we transform the society to fix that then? /s
Re:Software is eating the car by adrianN on Friday June 11, 2021 @02:25AM (#27469974)
Simple, replace judges with AIs. Possibly on the blockchain. Code is law.
Re:Software is eating the car by jasonwatkinspdx on Friday June 11, 2021 @11:22PM (#27481210)
I really hope this is just sarcasm :)
Re:Software is eating the car by pessimizer on Thursday June 10, 2021 @07:53PM (#27467602)
That's not a cute legal hack. Not retaining any information that is not useful and has the potential to be incriminating, unless legally required to, is what every smart company or government agency does. You find the relevant laws, then you write a retention policy.
Re:Software is eating the car by ClumsyPilot on Thursday June 10, 2021 @09:19PM (#27468238)
It's not about information, it's about the user being harassed untill someone clicks "accept" button, which is not compatible with "dealing in good faith"

Do you have proof they clicked it, and not their kid? Did they intend to consent, or click the button by accident/ spilled coffee on the touchscreen?

How can we trust your code at all, if all users say the rejected the contract multiple times, and you claim they accepted it and you are the one that stands to benefit from their acceptance, maybe you are lying? Maybe your system is unreliable?

Is it even legal to use the user's property - i.e. their car - to disturb their peace? If you were to post them a letter, you do it at your expense, but now you are doing it at their expense, they are paying to electricity and data to display those pixels for your benefit.

Re:Software is eating the car by watt on Saturday June 12, 2021 @05:51AM (#27483152)
Sorry, on who's side are you really on?
Re:Software is eating the car by Judgmentality on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:17PM (#27465242)
IANAL, but I'm curious if you are. In my experience, lawyers tend to get a lot done by intimidation. Remember all those ridiculous lawsuits from the RIAA over downloading illegal music? Well, it turns out when people actually took them to court they won every time. But people settled out of fear.

Sure, if the lawyers are actually trying to do things legally first and adhering to the letter of the law, I'm sure they're happy to have their efforts challenged. But I have never, ever, in my life encountered a lawyer who worked this way (and I have lawyers in my family, I've been to court, I've personally hired several, blah blah blah). I am not saying they don't know the law, but they use their greater knowledge of the law to their advantage. Their goal isn't transparency, it's submission.

Re:Software is eating the car by majormajor on Thursday June 10, 2021 @05:12PM (#27465929)
> Remember all those ridiculous lawsuits from the RIAA over downloading illegal music? Well, it turns out when people actually took them to court they won every time. But people settled out of fear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records,_Inc._v._Thoma...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_v._Tenenbaum

These were widely covered because most people just settled, and there were high hopes for something putting a damper on the lawsuits... from the page about the second case " It was only the second file-sharing case (after Capitol v. Thomas) to go to verdict in the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) anti-downloading litigation campaign"

So 2 for 2 there were found in favor of the RIAA, for huge damages even after appeal.

More recently, even ISPs are getting hit hard: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/06/1-billion-piracy...

Re:Software is eating the car by at-fates-hands on Thursday June 10, 2021 @08:20PM (#27467785)
As I remember those times, they didn't go after people for simply downloading music, they were going after the people who were actively distributing music on file sharing services.

There's a much harder burden of proof for the RIAA when they sue people over simply downloading songs or albums when the user can easily make the case for fair use. I mean, how many albums, 8-tracks, cassettes and CD's did you buy of the same artist and album? I know I did it thousands of times.

The burden gets a lot easier when you can show the person was actively distributing essentially pirated music to other users - propagating what is by legal definition, illegal activity.

Re:Software is eating the car by wolverine876 on Friday June 11, 2021 @12:37AM (#27469346)
> As I remember those times, they didn't go after people for simply downloading music, they were going after the people who were actively distributing music on file sharing services.

As I remember, at least some cases were complete BS. Some people hardly knew what file sharing was.

Re:Software is eating the car by kiba on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:26PM (#27465335)
Actually people lost. But it doesn't matter anyway because the RIAA can't collect it, and the debt was basically the lowest priority.
Re:Software is eating the car by Judgmentality on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:37PM (#27465464)
Do you have a link? I'm trying to dig up stories on it, but it's so stale. As far as I can tell almost everybody settled, and the few that fought in court eventually won.

https://www.wired.com/2010/05/riaa-bump/

Re:Software is eating the car by mentalpiracy on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:35PM (#27466746)
Re:Software is eating the car by _jal on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:35PM (#27465437)
I am not. I work with lots of them.

I think we're talking about two different things. Yes, the RIAA was running an intimidation campaign. By and large they didn't care about any particular case.

That's quite different than a plaintiff coming at a car manufacturer over sketchy click-wrap agreements.

Re:Software is eating the car by Judgmentality on Thursday June 10, 2021 @04:40PM (#27465502)
Your comment was about lawyers. I gave a random anecdote. We're not talking about different things at all, unless your comment was only about specific lawyers which you failed to mention.

Anyway, I don't care enough to comment anymore.

Re:Software is eating the car by _jal on Thursday June 10, 2021 @05:16PM (#27465972)
I'll remember not to care to reply in the first place.
Re:Software is eating the car by Buttons840 on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:13PM (#27464413)
You mean you'll only log that it has been accepted and nothing more?

I guess it becomes their word against... well, nothing, you don't know what they did or didn't do.

For those who care enough to reject EULAs, they should take a few videos of rejecting the license and hopefully that would be enough to shift the onus to the manufacturer, who, as you said, has next to nothing.

Re:Software is eating the car by brewdad on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:31PM (#27464630)
I should think that owning a car for more than a few weeks without accepting the EULA could serve as reasonable "proof" that you had no intention of accepting it regardless of what is logged. Especially if the EULA is presented at every startup.
Re:Software is eating the car by MereInterest on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:52PM (#27464924)
> It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done ... chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatever.

I think consent dialogs are one of the closest things to Newspeak that exist. In any spoken language, new words can be coined to express a desired meaning. In consent dialogs, there is no longer "Accept" and "Decline", instead there is "Accept" and "Ask me later". When presented with an upsell, the choices are not "Yes" and "No", but "Yes, sign me up!" and "No, I don't want to save money."

Re:Software is eating the car by anoncake on Thursday June 10, 2021 @09:35PM (#27468355)
"No thanks" is bad enough when I mean "fuck off".
Re:Software is eating the car by duped on Thursday June 10, 2021 @03:41PM (#27464747)
Prove that you didn't accept the EULA when you drove it off the lot, if the system was never designed to log when the acceptance was made.
Re:Software is eating the car by majormajor on Thursday June 10, 2021 @05:08PM (#27465879)
You probably wouldn't need a log of declines if you had the car for a year and the acceptance was recorded only on day 300. Especially since there will be miles on the car showing that it was driven before day 300...
Re:Software is eating the car by moron4hire on Thursday June 10, 2021 @05:28PM (#27466085)
Uhhh, you don't click through a EULA in the car. You do it when you sign the purchase agreement. Do you not read those things?
Re:Software is eating the car by joshribakoff on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:23PM (#27466604)
Activating certain features in Tesla does in fact prompt a EULA (enabling autopilot, full self driving, and ludicrous mode all involve disclaimers which are legally EULA agreements. These pop up after you already bought the car, when you activate them under the settings menu for the first time)
Re:Software is eating the car by ajross on Thursday June 10, 2021 @06:40PM (#27466809)
Those are liability releases, not agreements over software licensing. In fact those features actually are sold legally as "parts" on the car you bought, there's no licensing scheme from Tesla yet. Though there is noise being made about offering a monthly license for FSD given that it's at $10k now and lots of people who would want to try it are priced out.
Re:Software is eating the car by joshribakoff on Friday June 11, 2021 @12:25AM (#27469277)
The definition of a EULA agreement is a legal contract that is executed by clicking a button. They often contain liability releases. What software license doesn’t?

> A EULA specifies in detail the rights and restrictions which apply to the use of the software.

> Many EULAs assert extensive liability limitations. Most commonly, an EULA will attempt to hold harmless the software licensor in the event that the software causes damage to the user's computer or data, but some software also proposes limitations on whether the licensor can be held liable for damage that arises through improper use of the software (for example, incorrectly using tax preparation software and incurring penalties as a result).

Quoting from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user_license_agreement

Re:Software is eating the car by ajross on Friday June 11, 2021 @09:33AM (#27473090)
Pedantry about definitions aside, the Tesla agreement you are clicking is not a software license. Go read it.