What's with the EULA?

[Milk]

Hi Refract,

I've owned Distance for about a year now. When I first bought the game, I didn't agree to an End User License Agreement. I prefer to avoid agreeing to EULAs in the first place; I don't usually have time to read them, and when I do I'm not always confident that I understand their full meaning.

At the time of this writing, if I do not agree to the Refract EULA, I can neither play Distance on the computers in my household which already have the game installed, nor can I install Distance onto any new computers which do not already have the game installed. I want the ability to play the version of Distance immediately preceding the EULA's institution, especially considering I already had the game installed before the EULA was implemented.

Additionally, Distance's Steam store page lacks the bright yellow box on the right-hand column indicating the presence of the Refract EULA. (For comparison, see Mirror's Edge's store page.) I was under the impression that this notification was automated by the Steam store, so I'm surprised that it isn't there already.

The EULA presented to me in the Steam client tells me that another copy of the EULA can be found at " http://www.refractstudios.com/eula. ". While the EULA is indeed live at " http://www.refractstudios.com/eula/ ", the link in the license agreement as presented by the Steam client parses the period at the end of the link as being part of the link and thus redirects to a dead page. I personally don't know if the misfunctional behavior of the link is enough to cause updates to the EULA to fail to be upheld in court; however, a broken link is simply bad taste. (The link later on to http://www.gameanalytics.com/privacy.html. is also a broken link.)

After reading through the entire EULA (section 4d seems to prohibit Steam link use?), most of the document seems like reasonable protections for Refract. Chiefly I object to the EULA being implemented after I purchased the game, and not being able to use previous versions of the Software if I don't agree. I also would have preferred more openness about Refract's action in adding an EULA to the Software; to my knowledge the EULA isn't mentioned in any news posts, forum threads, the store page, or... anything.

Thanks,
BlueZero4

[Californ1a]

4d is specifically about networked computers, such as installing on a server and allowing others to play it from your server at the same time you are. It specifically says "for online use or for use on more than one (1) computer or gaming unit at the same time" - The Steam Link is neither a computer nor a "gaming unit" - all it does is Steam In-Home Streaming, meaning the host PC running the game can't also be used to play at the same time as the Link (in separate instances). 4d applies moreso to something like where a school would install software on a server and all the PCs on the network can access that same installed software in separate instances on their own machines at the same time.

Also, I believe that yellow EULA box on the store page is only required when the publisher (3rd party) has a separate EULA from the developers (1st party). There are plenty of games that require a EULA, but when the publishers are the developers, they don't have a EULA box on their store pages.

[Milk]

Originally posted by Californ1a:

Also, I believe that yellow EULA box on the store page is only required when the publisher (3rd party) has a separate EULA from the developers (1st party). There are plenty of games that require a EULA, but when the publishers are the developers, they don't have a EULA box on their store pages.

Killing Floor 2 has the same name listed for both developer and publisher, but they also have a yellow EULA box. If it's true that self-published games don't need yellow EULA boxes, Killing Floor 2's EULA box is unnecessary.

I have been assuming that "third-party" in the context of the EULA box meant "not Steam" rather than "not publisher."