2006 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - NO UNAUTHORIZED REPRODUCTION (see the bottom of the page) - of course fair use allows unauthorized reproduction - like my reproduction of their copyright notice, for example. Hattip Volokh who points out that while it might be possible to waive fair use by signing a contract (a gray area to be sure), it certainly isn't by opening a web page that announces you've waived your rights.

"Hattip Volokh who points out that while it might be possible to waive fair use by signing a contract (a gray area to be sure)"

Very, very dark grey to be sure. In Blizzard v. BnetD a US court ruled that it's possible to waive fair use by doing something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike signing a contract.

I propose a guerilla campaign. In strategic public places, deploy jacks-in-the-box with crank handles. People turning these have something pop up into their face -- not a traditional jack-in-the-box, but rather a paper that says: "END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT. By turning the crank, you agree to pay John H. Doe the sum of $1,000,000 within thirty (30) days in exchange for the crank-turning privilege just exercised."

The theory of EULA enforceability (even if you don't see it until after you've made the sale or installed the software or whatever) and that anything valid in a signed, negotiated contract is enforceable in a EULA (and certainly, agreeing to pay a sum, even an outrageous one, for some service, however dubious, is so enforceable) means that if you put your own name in place of "John H. Doe", you could be a very rich man.

But probably not. More likely, you'll merely crack the foundation on which a very shoddy and extraordinarily widespread IT business practise -- one slowly seeping into other, unrelated industries at that -- rests. And that may amount to doing a public service easily worth millions, collectively, to the poor downtrodden "end users" of the world, in the long run.

(In actual fact, such a campaign will probably include at least one instance of one of the boxes becoming the focus of a bomb scare, in the current fearful climate. The terrorists have done a right number on you lot in the US, haven't they? Particularly that Cheney bastard. Making the boxes anonymous thus recommended, and leaving no fingerprints. Just in case. The millions can be made payable to the charitable cause of your choice, and the boxes' non-affiliation with them made clear in the EULA. Or, to be evil and extremely subversive, the millions can be made payable to Bill Gates ... *cackle*)