Shrink wrap
Volume Number: 9
Issue Number: 3
Column Tag: Legal Eagles
Shrink Wrap License Agreements 
Unravelling some of the confusing legal issues
By Paul Goodman, New York, New York
About the author
Paul Goodman is a partner in the New York City law firm of Elias, Goodman &
Shank, where he specializes in computer law and in representing software developers.
He is also the publisher of the recently released Software Company Legal Guide. He
has earned a Masters Degree in Computer Science and is the author of four books on
Macintosh programming. He welcomes your comments on this article (AppleLink: Law.
Goodman). This article is provided for general informational purposes only. If
specific legal advice is required, the services of a knowledgeable attorney should be
sought.
It’s finally finished. For the last two years, your small company has been
working on its newest software product. Countless days, evenings and weekends went
into its design, programming, testing and debugging. All of the details are almost
complete. The documentation is finished, the disks are at the duplicator and the design
firm has just delivered a magnificent logo and packaging. But, hold everything. You
realize that there is something you forgot. The software license agreement. No
problem you say as you grab for the packaging from that utility you bought yesterday.
All you have to do is copy what they have and you’ll be just fine.
This scenario might be slightly exaggerated but in most cases it is not far from
what might actually happen. The license agreement that will be included with a
software product is often not given much of a thought. This is unfortunate since the