The simple "legality," unfortunately, is that we have none when the game and its gods go wrong. Were a rogue employee to delete your accounts and houses (à la the ******* Operator From Hell, and GM Darwin and others were suspected of deleting houses to let their friends place), you'd have no recourse, except perhaps getting a refund for unused game time. Screwing over players is never good PR, of course, but every software company has such disclaimers out of necessity. Back in 1999, when we were offered a beta client with a few new features, something went wrong one night, and it forced my character to res on the spot. I lost a 5x, nearly 7x mage, which at the time was a godly character that took five months of hard training. (Eval was particularly slow, because at the time skill gained slowed as more people used it.) I e-mailed the developer responsible for the new client, and he said it didn't happen to him. Yes, I explained, that's why such things are called bugs, assuming he could reproduce the same circumstances. There was nothing he would do for me, e.g. looking in previous backups to see what the character was, and he wouldn't even answer my challenge as to why I'd deliberately ruin a character.
Even freeware properly carries a disclaimer, lest something go wrong. All it would take to bankrupt a company or individual is a jury awarding huge sums over software they don't understand, for damages they don't understand are inflated. A purchased character transfer is worth $20, but a vet reward transfer has far less than that value, since, as I've said, it's flawed to think the use of a vet transfer would have otherwise been a purchased transfer. To limit a single character's vet reward transfers to every two weeks was indeed depriving me of some value, but even I must admit it's not $20.
"TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY DISPUTE WITH EA OR ITS LICENSORS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO EA SERVICES AND/OR EA PRODUCTS IS TO STOP USING EA SERVICES, AND TO CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT EA, ITS LICENSORS, LICENSEES AND AFFILIATES ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY ACT OR FAILURE TO ACT BY THEM OR ANY OTHER PERSON REGARDING CONDUCT, COMMUNICATION OR CONTENT ON EA SERVICES OR USE OF EA SOFTWARE. IN NO CASE SHALL EA'S OR ITS LICENSORS', LICENSEES', AFFILIATES', EMPLOYEES', OFFICERS', OR DIRECTORS' (COLLECTIVELY, "EA AFFILIATES") LIABILITY TO YOU EXCEED THE AMOUNT THAT YOU PAID TO EA FOR EA SERVICES. IN NO CASE SHALL EA, ITS LICENSORS OR EA AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF EA SERVICES, EA SOFTWARE, THE INTERNET OR FOR ANY OTHER CLAIM RELATED IN ANY WAY TO YOUR USE OF EA SERVICES OR ACCOUNTS. WHILE EA USES COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE MEANS TO PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION, EA AND ITS LICENSORS ASSUME NO LIABILITY FOR LOSS OF DATA, DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR SOFTWARE OR HARDWARE, AND ANY OTHER LOSS OR DAMAGE SUFFERED BY YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY, WHETHER DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL AND HOWEVER ARISING, AS A RESULT OF ACCESSING OR USING ANY EA SERVICE, CONTENT, EA SOFTWARE TO YOUR COMPUTER AND/OR DEVICE."
And right after that is a section less wordy, more vague, but just as important, about agreeing to indemnify EA. Again, it's standard.
know:
