Signs of the End Times, #127

[andygates]

Grapes with an EULA.  No, really:  "The recipient of the produce contained in this package agrees not to propagate or reproduce any portion of the produce, including (but not limited to) seeds, stems, tissue and fruit."  What makes it particularly magnificent is that they're seedless grapes, unpropagatable and unreproducible, making the boilerplate EULA entirely vacuous and moronic (like that Apple one for Windows iTunes that said you can only install it on an Apple computer).

Maybe the Mark of the Beast is actually a licence agreement?

Does anyone, anywhere, ever, think that grapes with a freaking EULA are a good, valid, necessary thing?  I'd love to hear it.  I'd love to see the court transcripts, too, when the GIAA take Little Timmy to court for planting one in a yoghurt pot on his windowsill. 

To borrow from Bill (maythegodsblesshimandkeephimumdead) Hicks: "People who write EULAs:  Kill yourselves."

Comments

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

I repeat the oft-heard lament, which I tend to use even when the particular company mentioned isn't the biocorp currently at fault:

"Fucking Monsanto."

I mean, it's them often enough as to make very little difference, really. I reserve some of my most finely-honed hatred for these guys -- the guys who go and sue farmers because their mutant pollen cross-pollinated and *ruined the farmer's damned livelihood*. At least, that's my recollection; some of their terminator-enabled mutant pollen went into the air, got into a different farmer's crops, caused that crop to grow without reusable seeds, *and* got the guy sued by Monsanto for using their product. Utterly insane.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

So why do the farmers buy this crap?

Of course, I'm also an agricultural scientist

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

Because first off they are given incentives by the GMO companies. Free seeds for "trial" purposes. Secondly, because they don't know how to grow without resorting to masses of pesticides because the drive for cheap monoculture (fuelled by supermarket demands and artificial food prices set by the big retailers) requires them to be able to harvest in a certain way. Small, diverse fields are not as economic to harvest.

The GMO crops commonly causing the problems are maize and wheat, both of which are more profitable if they can be grown as monoculture for harvesting purposes. The GMO advantages are that the crops are more resistant to certain pesticides, enabling more of those pesticides to be used against the pests. The cost:benefit of the crops is either that the farmer doesn't have to spend so much on pesticides overall, because he can dump enough on there in the first place to slaughter every pest from his gonads to the horizon and then some; or he loses less of the crop to pests. Some of the crops are drought tolerant or pest resistant — it's basically down to higher yields making the expenditure more than worthwhile, which means greed, basically.

Profit is the bottom line, Munky. Farmers affected by crop contamination believed the lies that it wasn't a risk and greed induced them to ignore any misgivings. the farmers I feel sorry for are the ones whose crops were contaminaed by neighbouring farmers. The farmers who bought the stuff in the first place can rot in hell.

Re: Of course, I'm also an agricultural scientist

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that overview, cool.

It does strike me that the mere presence of a EULA is a clear sign of corporate evil.

Re: Of course, I'm also an agricultural scientist

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

On food? You bet your ass. Hence my initial comment.

Re: Of course, I'm also an agricultural scientist

[andygates.livejournal.com]

On anything. They only started out as an arse-covering exercise and they've just metastasized beyond a joke. Imagine seeing one on a bike part. "This derailleur is provided AS IS and no warranty of serviceability, interoperability or reliability is offered or implied. By opening this box you indemnify Ace Components Co of any and all liability and agree not to sell trade or sketch this product in any medium physical or electronic..."