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Sunday, February 03, 2008

Autodesk Canadian License

I noticed this weird clause in the Autodesk EULA

CANADIAN LICENSE.
If You use this Software in Canada, You agree to the following: The parties hereto confirm that it is their wish that this Agreement, as well as other documents relating hereto, including Notices, have been and shall be written in the English language only. Les parties ci-dessus confirment leur désir que cet accord ainsi que tous les documents, y compris tous avis qui s'y rattachent, soient rédigés en langue anglaise.

I wonder what's the deal here. Anyone?

posted by Deelip Menezes at 1:05 PM

2 Comments:

  • Canada is officially bilingual, English and Frence. This means that almost all products have to have both English and French manuals, markings, ingredients, licenses, etc.

    (This was enacted by the federal government to pacify the separatists of Quebec. Quebec is officially unilingual, French-only.)

    To get around this requirement, companies specifically exclude French, as in this Autodesk contract. In other cases, they will use the phrase, "Office not valid in Quebec," to get around the need to provide a French version, or the catch-all prhase, "Also available in French."

    It can get this extreme in Canada: an English-speaking Quebecer successfully sued Air Canada because none of the staff on the airplane spoke French.

    If you move to Quebec from a non-English speaking country, your children are required to go to French-speaking schools; if you run a private business in Quebec, you have to use French-language software. English may be used inside of stores, but must be in smaller print than French; outside of stores, signs must be French-only.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 6:55 PM, February 03, 2008  

  • Thanks. Very interesting.

    By Blogger Deelip Menezes, At 10:49 PM, February 03, 2008  

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