(Sorry if this has been discussed before, I'm too busy lately to dedicate time to search through the forums)

First of, I must admit the inclusion of EA catalog has caught me by surprise. I was sure EA would not participate in a site like gog since they love DRM and money a lot. But now that the initial euphoria has worn out, it's time to read the small print since, as I guess many have already noticed, EA games come with their own EULA apart from the gog one (most if not all of gog games come only with a gog EULA, haven't checked it, but I guess it's the same for any game).

The first thing to notice is that this EULA is very "modern", meaning that it considers many scenarios that didn't exist back when the games where releases. In fact, it reads a lot like any EULA of modern EA games. I want to comment on three of the clauses that have me very worried.

- CLAUSE 11.: Governing Law: Basically, if you live in Europe, excluding the UK, any conflict regarding the game will be solved under Californian Law, o_0 Is that even legal? I thought international purchases were governed by the laws of the purchaser's country, but I may be wrong.

- CLAUSE 1.B Access to Software, Online Features And/Or Services: If you have to access software related to the game or online services you may have to create an EA account and use the EA Downloader. This spawns a lot of questions. These games will hardly require patches or have add-ons developed, but the part of the online services raises all the alarms. Does this mean that EA may force us to check in and use their servers to play these games online? For me this can be classified as DRM and will cause me an important moral dilemma regarding gog. No DRM means not depending on any company to play the games I buy, online included.

- CLAUSE 2. Consent to Use of Data: Yep!, they can spy on us. This could translate into a long discussion on the morality of companies spying on customers "to design a better experience", so I will just say I don't approve. I may still buy such a game, but I want a straight answer of how the spying part works.

This said, I invite anyone concerned with these issues to contact gog asking for explanations. I've done so and I'll post the answer here, but it would be nice from them to make a public statement.

Probably just a copy/paste from all the modern EA games.
Most EULAs from those games either don't exist or wouldn't make any sense today so they just slapped on the current EULA that is in use.

Don't worry about it. This is just the general EULA of EA. Many things do not apply to the games on GOG, for example the usage of EADM.

I had almost the same questions about EULA, and got almost the same answers as above.

Unanswered question is why GOG / EA was so lazy to include such "modern" EULA for these games - they had a lot of time, and I would wait a month or two longer to get more "polished" EULA, without any "strange" sentences.

You'd think EA would be too professional for pseudolegal copypasta.

It's basically legal. It serves as a catch-all, but is mainly targeted at piracy. If you're caught pirating it, you can be prosecuted under californian law. Due to the lack of any real precedent internationally, it's really no different from what would happen if you were caught smuggling physical goods out of the states. Even if you're caught in your own country, you could still face criminal charges in the US if you ever returned there. Probably won't ever be used though, unless somebody sets up an illegal EA classics store or something. Sounds like copy-pasted mumbojumbo to me. I can't see where we'd need to use any online services for these games (although I guess it's plausible that newer games with online support will be released), but what I think is a stronger argument for not being worried about this is that it would make no sense for EA to include support for these decade-old games in their EADM and online services, as well as the probable impossibility of updating the game to make it phone home. Unless the EA games come with their own EA frontend through GoG or something - if they had though I think we'd be seeing a few more of these threads at this point. Same as above. Why would they open up for support regarding these games on their own end, at their own expense?

Yeah!, I guess the process of reprogramming the games to do such things may not worth it for EA, but the whole thing is kind of suspicious and I still invite people to inquiry gog, if only to make it clear that their customers are alert.

My opinion is that EA is pushing gog for more. In particular, take into account that soon the first batch of control-laden games of EA will become old games and I'm sure EA is already thinking on how to maximize profit on them when the time to sell them as classics comes.

I'm onto you EA. Just one mistake...

Ubisoft and Activision have their own EULA, but it's not on the web page, you can read it during the installation.

About CLAUSE 11 - it's the same as in GOG Terms of Use.

It's legal, but there's EU law and probably this is not the only law applicable.

So, which is the best brand to make tin-foil hats out of?

It's actually quite expensive to produce an EULA. You would think it's just a simple document that a lawyer knocks together in a couple of days, but In applications I've worked on, these things take months to get out of a legal team (then it goes to marketting, and bounced back to legal, and then someone else wants to change it, so back to legal again).

With a company like EA, which is releasing games frequently, it's hardly surprising that someone has said "Look, let's just have one EULA that covers all our games". If they're willing to do that for their top titles being released to mass market, you can't really expect them to go to the extra expense for a niche market like GOG.

With paranoia that great, simple dollar store brands won't cut it. They'll need to buy the really good stuff.

Hehe, I switched to thin layers of lead foil years ago. The protection is far superior and it is much easier to mold into a full helmet with eye slits. It does cost more but . . . you will immediately feel the increased shielding it provides . . . =)

More on topic

Seems the three EA releases are the only games on GOG with "ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY" on the game cards.

I assume that if you don't accept the game won't run / install, if you do . . . it will. Same as it ever was.

I doubt there is an on-line check included in these games so . . . adding this "acceptance" clause to the game cards is apparently required by EA. Since EA is the only publisher requiring this . . . it says much about the EA. We're not going to do anything illegal with games purchased from GOG and the pirates don't care so . . .

Please don't get me wrong, I welcome EA to GoG and I not only fully support everybody purchasing their games, but I even encourage it. EA took the first step (in the right direction), so now it's up to GoG and their community (read us ;)) to award them by means of sale numbers, or else every future attempt would be fruitless.

But shouldn't the games they distribute have an 'old' EULA with them already?
Couldn't that be recycled free of charge for them and thus likely ease the pain with everybody (or they wouldn't have played the game back then either).

I just hope that GoG sees some massive sale figures for EA games and thus would be able to forward a community concern considering EULA with a little more 'financial weight' attached to it and less of a 'pestering niche' feeling. (-ET, should you read this and check, no I haven't purchased any EA games yet, but I plan to soon as Magic Carpet and Crusader are released and I can calculate the financial drain ;))

Not entirely convinced. I'm revising some EULAs of recent EA games and some clauses are removed or added, if they are not going to enforce clauses 1.B and 2 they could have just removed them. I make them myself. When EA forbids you playing their games for criticizing them on their forums, force you to have a permanent online connection or limit your installation amounts, I can sell you some.

There was a similar discussion earlier, regarding the Ubisoft EULA on their games here on GOG.