Sneakwrap abounds

OK, SO I'M a little slow.

While I already realized that sneakwrap tactics have spread well beyond the software industry, reader responses to recent columns on shrinkwrapped books and deactivated PDAs make it clear that I had no idea just how far it's gone.

"I love your column, but I think perhaps you're a little behind the reality of the times," writes one patient reader. "It's not just the high tech software/hardware industry that has gotten predatory with their customers. As the old carnival barker used to proclaim, 'You pays your money, and you takes your chance.' "

That reader proceeds to regale me with recent examples from her own life in which she had been tripped up by the fine print, including that her cellular phone service arbitrarily switching her phone number to a nonlocal area code, a surgeon giving her permission forms rather than answers to her questions, and even uninstallable hurricane shutters for which she had no recourse.

An example that she had found particularly frustrating involved a $2,000 professional-grade sewing machine that came with a 35-year warranty. But when a light bulb on the touch-screen controls burned out, "the entire board had to be replaced, costing $750. The repairman airily stated they have to replace those all the time. Warranty? Oh, that's an electrical part." The warranty, the fine print said, only covered mechanical parts.

Other readers had multiple examples. "Manufacturers have tried to restrict customers for decades, at least," writes one reader who described the sneakwrap techniques used for years by medical equipment manufacturers and college textbook publishers. "I have an automobile battery charger that is 40 to 80 years old. It has one vacuum tube, made by GE. There is a license printed on the charger. It says that this tube is licensed for use in chargers, but is not licensed for use in a radio. My uninformed suspicion is that this sort of thing was eventually ruled nonenforceable by some court."

The restrictions imposed by sneakwrap agreements know few bounds. "I bought some plants a few years ago that were patented varieties," a reader writes. "They had a tag saying 'asexual reproduction prohibited' on them. In the book field, IBM used to license certain software manuals, rather than sell them. This was [the old IBM mainframe operating system] around 1982-1984. It was a pain at the time, as getting enough copies for the systems group was always hard."

"I just returned a digital camera because it had a hardware shrinkwrap license," another reader writes. "They said that anyone in my household could use it but I couldn't lend it to anyone else. There were many other silly things also, like I agree not to try to return it to the company but I could try my luck at the place I purchased it. One interesting thing, if I purchased it as a gift, I could give it to the person and the warranty would still be valid. How nice of them."