Shrinkwrap contracts or shrinkwrap licenses are

boilerplate contract A standard form contract (sometimes referred to as a ''contract of adhesion,'' a ''leonine contract'', a ''take-it-or-leave-it contract'', or a '' boilerplate contract'') is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the co ...

s packaged with products; usage of the product is deemed acceptance of the contract. Web-wrap,

click-wrap A clickwrap or clickthrough agreement is a prompt that offers individuals the opportunity to accept or decline a digitally-mediated policy. Privacy policies, terms of service and other user policies, as well as copyright policies commonly employ t ...

and browse-wrap are related terms which refer to license agreements in software which is downloaded or used over the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

. A

software license A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both sour ...

agreement is commonly called an end user license agreement (or EULA). The term 'Shrink Wrap' describes the shrink wrap plastic wrapping which coats software boxes or the terms and conditions which comes with products on delivery. Shrink wrap assertions are unsigned permit understandings which state that acknowledgement on the client of the terms of the assertion is demonstrated by opening the shrink wrap bundling or other bundling of the product, by utilisation of the product, or by some other determined instrument.

United States

The legal status of shrink wrap contracts in the US is somewhat unclear. In the 1980s, software license enforcement acts were enacted by

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

and Illinois in an attempt to address this issue, but parts of the Louisiana act were invalidated in '' Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.'', and the Illinois act was quickly repealed. Case history also fails to clear up the confusion. One line of cases follows ''

ProCD v. Zeidenberg ''ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg'', 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir., 1996), was a court ruling at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The case is a significant precedent on the matter of the applicability of American contract law to new ...

'' which held such contracts enforceable (see, e.g., '' Bowers v. Baystate Technologies'') and the other follows ''Klocek v. Gateway, Inc.'', which found the contracts at hand unenforceable (e.g., '' Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp.''), but did not comment on shrink wrap contracts as a whole. These decisions are split on the question of consent, with the former holding that only objective manifestation of consent is required while the latter require at least the possibility of subjective consent. In particular, the Netscape contract was rejected because it lacked an express indication of consent (no "I agree" button) and because the contract was not presented directly to the user (users were required to click on a link to access the terms). However, the court in this case did make it clear that "Reasonably conspicuous notice of the existence of contract terms and unambiguous manifestation of assent to those terms by consumers are essential if electronic bargaining is to have integrity and credibility." Specht, 306 F.3d 17.

United States

See also

References

Further reading