[pdabbadabba]

I agree that GP's perspective doesn't match reality, but for a different reason. The reality is, I think, that consumers do not care what is in the EULAs they sign. And this isn't just due to ignorance, lack of resources, lack of bargaining power, or any of those things. (Note, that I'm not saying these issues don't exist--just that they aren't the actual reasons why most consumers sign EULAs.) It's because, for the average transaction, the likelihood (and magnitude) of any real dispute is regarded as so low that most people are OK signing pretty much anything. This, I'd venture, is almost always a rational decision from a consumer's perspective. but the problem is that these individual decisions can add up to more than the sum of their parts by insulating companies from the broader regulatory goals of certain privately enforceable laws (i.e., laws that an individual has to sue to enforce). The freedom-of-contract defense GP is giving doesn't properly come to grips with the fact that many legal claims serve purposes other than vindication of personal rights (or, more broadly, the right to bring any claim in court, especially class actions), and therefore should not be so easily waived.