Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday October 18 2014, @08:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the pray-I-don't-alter-it-any-further dept.

TechDirt reports:

Nintendo: It protects what it believes it owns with great vigor. The company has rarely missed an opportunity to make sure that other people are not allowed to alter or mess with the stuff Nintendo insists is Nintendo's. In an apparent effort to maximize the irony combo-meter, Nintendo also has been known to make sure that customers don't mess with or alter the properties those customers actually own, such as online support for games that Nintendo decided to alter long after purchase... just because.

But the cold grip of Nintendo's control over its customers' property is apparently no longer limited to games. Nintendo recently released an update for the Wii U that forces you to "agree" to a new end-user license agreement, or else it simply [locks up] the console altogether.

This is how Nintendo's update to its end-user license agreement (EULA) for the Wii U works, as described by YouTube user "AMurder0fCrows" in this video. He didn't like the terms of Nintendo's updated EULA and refused to agree. He may have expected that, like users of the original Wii and other gaming consoles, he would have the option to refuse software or EULA updates and continue to use his device as he always had before. He might have to give up online access, or some new functionality, but that would be his choice. That's a natural consumer expectation in the gaming context--but it didn't apply this time. Instead, according to his video, the Wii U provides no option to decline the update, and blocks any attempt to access games or saved information by redirecting the user to the new EULA. The only way to regain the use of the device is to click "Agree."

gewg_ objects to the use of "brick" to describe something that can be set right with a software tweak and does not require soldering equipment to correct the condition.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19 2014, @08:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 19 2014, @08:10PM (#107614)

    It should be void for the same reason any contract without quid pro quo is void. In the original contract you bought the device and agreed to the Eula in exchange for the ability to use the device. You paid money and, in exchange, you got the ability to use the device under the previous terms. However if they change the Eula, even if you hit agree, that's still not a valid contract because there is no consideration involved. Any changes to the original contract must have something that benefits both parties and both parties must agree and one party can't simply have the option to void only their end of the original contract if you don't agree to the new terms. They must give you the option not to agree to the new terms and to continue with the contract under the old previously agreed upon terms unaffected by the fact that they would like to impose new terms. Otherwise they would be forcing you to change the terms without consideration. Consideration is something that you would voluntarily agree to given the option between continuing with the old contract, exactly as before, or choosing to agree to the new terms. Without both those options available then anything they claim to give you in exchange for clicking agree is not consideration and so the contract is not valid (or at least should not be considered valid in any sane world).