Software that Reads EULAs So You Don’t Have To

One of the important things that most of us neglect to do when we install software (and we install a LOT of software here at Download Squad) is to completely read the End User License Agreement page of the install wizard. Admit it, you scroll to the bottom and hit Next without batting an eye, right? Well JavaCool Software, the folks that brought us the excellent SpywareBlaster, have released a new tool they call the EULAlyzer. This is a cool concept; essentially, you feed the text of an EULA you are curious about (but not curious enough to actually read), and it analyzes the text for any potentially noteworthy words and phrases. It then allows you to browse only those statements that may be cause for alarm. Brilliant. Of course, this is not intended as a replacement for actually reading EULAs, but it really is better than nothing if you find you most often just skip them. Now there’s no excuse.

Note that Ed Bott has noticed some stability issues with the current release, however JavaCool Software have a great track record, and we can expect any problematic behavior to be fixed very soon.

Just like SpywareBlaster, EULAlyzer offers full functionality for free, but there is also a Pro version you can purchase. The Pro version’s most interesting feature is called EULA-Watch, which will watch for anything that looks like an EULA and immediately provide analysis for it. It’s nice to have options, though the free version suits me just fine.