Looking to flesh out an idea - EULA parser/comparer

From: Daniel Bragg (nospam_at_ccdsystems.com)
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: 16 Sep 2004 15:09:15 -0700

I don't mind sharing details of this idea, as I would never want to make
money off a product like this, only get it reliable, usable, and into the
hands of the general computing public.

I'm looking at writing a utility that will allow you to drop onto it the
full text of some product's End User License Agreement (EULA). The
utility would look into its database of previous EULAs and perform a
comparison, attempting to identify the closest match to the one you
dropped. If it finds mo match, it will ask you to review it
(Thoroughly), and decide if you really want to accept it or reject it
(then it store the EULA in its database with your Yay or Nay response).

If it finds a match, it tells you if it was from the Yay or Nay list,
then clearly identifies all of the differences between it and the closest
match. This way, if there are huge blocks of text (like the ALL CAPS
LEGALESE crap) that are identical, you can focus on only what is unique.

To get this to work, I'll need to find out if there are any components
out there (freeware would be nice - no budget, only a good idea) that can
(a) compare two blocks of text and generate some sort of numerical
similarity (so you can find the closest one), and (b) display two blocks
of text to a user with clearly identified differences between them, and
(c) a good file storage (not necessarily a database) method to store the
EULAs in. These would need to be components, not stand-alone utilities
(WinMerge has nice file compare and display capability, but I don't think
I could make it work in a coherent app).

This idea was prompted by a friend of mine who painstakingly read every
EULA, which shamed me into thinking I should do the same. However, I'd
much rather let the computer do most of the grunt work - I'm only
interested in what I _haven't_ read before...

Thank you for all who read this and care to share in my vision in any
way.

Sincerely,

Daniel Bragg
you may contact me at my home at
d a n d a w n (at) e a r t h c o r p (dot) c o m

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Looking to flesh out an idea - EULA parser/comparer
    ... has a view on EULA and what he would like to see done about it. ... >(then it store the EULA in its database with your Yay or Nay response). ... >a good file storage method to store the ... >(WinMerge has nice file compare and display capability, ...
    (borland.public.delphi.thirdpartytools.general)
  • Re: Using vfoledb with webservices?
    ... test database with some .aspx script for testing purpose. ... > of VFP or VFPOLEDB for development purposes. ... As the EULA also states you may ...
    (microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange)
  • Re: Switching alarm system - can I convert my database?
    ... There is no EULA that would stop you from keeping your own data. ... Do you know what database engine your new system as well as your old system ... alarm points are dealt with by a third party add on software overlay. ... Does your new software have a conversion utility? ...
    (alt.security.alarms)
  • Re: Looking to flesh out an idea - EULA parser/comparer
    ... only return empty lines as differences or nothing. ... But, if you need to compare many files in batch, that's a different story. ... and break text of other paragraphs down by 60 chars in line. ... > suspect that FC'ing or DIFF'ing the current EULA against each one of them ...
    (borland.public.delphi.thirdpartytools.general)
  • Re: creating trial version of database
    ... make them agree to a EULA, so you can sue 'em if they keep using it;) ... database to cease being operational after so many sessions. ... reset a computer's date, use the program, and then reset the date back again. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.formscoding)