Browsewrap, clickwrap, clickthrough, terms of use, terms of
service, EULA. Just what are we talking about and how did we get
here?
In Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble,
Inc., 2014 WL 4056549 (9th Cir. Aug. 18, 2014)
the US Ninth Circuit wades into the subject of online contracting.
Law professor Eric Goldman (ericgoldman.org) argues that these
terms we're accustomed to using, to describe ecommerce
agreements, only contribute to the confusion. The
term "browsewrap" derives from
"clickwrap", which is itself a portmanteau derived
the concept of a shrinkwrap license. As one court described it in
1996: "The 'shrinkwrap license' gets its name from the
fact that retail software packages are covered in plastic or
cellophane shrink wrap, and some vendors... have written licenses
that become effective as soon as the customer tears the wrapping
from the package."
