Free for a Fee

Here at Ars Technica, we’re no strangers to overzealous EULAs. But a clause in the EULA for the beta version of Electronic Arts’ new Sim City might take the cake for punishing users for seemingly innocuous actions… or lack of actions.

As Twitter user Dan Teasdale tweeted recently (and SideQuesting promoted), the end-user license agreement you have to sign to get access to the new Sim City beta mentions that “it is your responsibility to report all known bugs, abuse of ‘bugs’, ‘undocumented features’ or other defects and problems related to the Game and Beta Software to EA as soon as they are found (‘Bugs’).” That’s not so bad, but it gets a little bit more concerning when the EULA lays out the penalties for failing to report a bug you come across.

“If you know about a Bug or have heard about a Bug and fail to report the Bug to EA, we reserve the right to treat you no differently from someone who abuses the Bug. You acknowledge that EA reserve the right to lock anyone caught abusing a Bug out of all EA products.”