the fun stuff you find in EULAs

[ckd]

iTunes told me that there was a software update for the iPod classic, and as these things do, popped up a clickwrap license with the End User License Agreement.

For the vast majority of you who are never bored/paranoid enough to read these, please note:

THE iPOD SOFTWARE AND iPOD SOFTWARE UPDATES ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE iPOD SOFTWARE OR iPOD SOFTWARE UPDATES COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

(Screaming all-caps in original.)

So don't try to fly your 787 or control your heart-lung machine with the scrollwheel.

Comments

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Dang! NOW how am I going to run my nuclear power plant?

I have a friend (who's a nuclear engineer, oddly enough) who collects odd warning labels... I may have to forward that one to him...

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Thank GOD you told me this. I was about to hook up my iPod to the Cerebral Perfusionator®, and I *wouldn't have been covered* in case of death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage! (Because the perfusionator, thanks to its FusionPro™ power system, can cause some really *spectacular* environmental damage, let me tell you).

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Well, there goes my scheme for an iPod based Air Traffic Control system...

[barondave.livejournal.com]

How did they determine this? Was there an episode of Mythbusters?

[hr-macgirl.livejournal.com]

I like how, although the rest of the warning is in all-caps, someone went to great lengths to un capitalize the "i" in "iPod".

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Marketing, would be my bet.

Smacks of their sort of shenanigans.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Ignoring that warning could lead to superpowers, one imagines.

[eanja]

I had a good laugh, then passed this on to a friend, who then informed me that is a perfectly standard paragraph and is found all all sorts of hardware and chips all over. Which, sadly, isn't as funny as ipod having delusions of grandeur.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

They may not be intended for the above uses, but I bet you MacGyver would figure a way to do it.

[whl.livejournal.com]

Actually, Apple is said to be working on software to let you control your Mac from your iPhone, or presumably your iPod Touch.

Reminds me of the time we found we couldn't let our graphics artist use any Microsoft software. While We'd hired her to come to Mississippi when she was in Ithaca, New York, she was actually a citizen of Yugoslavia (Montenegro). And the EULA barred citizens of Yugoslavia from using Microsoft software, due to nuclear proliferation issues.

So no Word for her!

I immediately wanted to know if there was any way to get Mississippi added to the list, but that year, we were already supposedly the state most likely to have pirated Microsoft software, so it wouldn't have made much difference.

[miekec]

...and we didn't vote for your president either.

Very funny. Makes me wonder what in the world happened to merit a warning like it. Who crashed which airplane with which iPod software? Or turned off someone else's life support system instead of scrolling through their playlist?

Oh, and on a totally different note: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/ is the site with (obviously) strange maps. Some of them are really cool.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Considering some of the software we used to write on the midnight shift to control our nuclear facility, Itunes does not seem particularly scary.