UPDATE (1/22/13): EA has updated the EULA language and issued the following statement: "“The clause in the EA Beta Agreement for the SimCity beta was intended to prohibit players from using known exploits to their advantage. However, the language as included is too broad. EA has never taken away access to a player’s games for failing to report a bug. We are now updating the Beta Agreement to remove this point.”"

ORIGINAL POST

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."

That circuitous language obscures a simple fact: just coming across a bug in the Sim City beta and not telling anyone about it is enough to ban you from all EA games.

This kind of language isn't exactly new; players noted a similar clause in the agreement for the Battlefield 3 beta. It's not the first time EA's EULAs have attracted controversy, either; in 2011, the Origin user agreement let the software collect data from anywhere on your hard drive and upload it to EA. EA quickly revised that language days after widespread player outrage over the clause.

We have yet to hear any reports of players being banned for simply stumbling upon an unreported bug. In fact, it's hard to imagine how EA would actually detect that a player failed to report a game-breaking bug that was encountered. More than likely, the company would only make use of this company-wide ban if someone started spreading word of a beta bug publicly, rather than simply telling EA about it.

Just because some overprotective lawyer stuck this language in the EULA doesn't mean EA plans to use its power punitively. Still, the revelation helps highlight just how many powers software makers like EA reserve for themselves when you click that "I accept" button. Let's be thankful that no one has yet put a sentence in a EULA saying the software maker has the right to remove your kidneys in the dead of night.