I suspect (quite strongly) that the manufacturers figure no one will read the EULA. So they figure they can get away with whatever they want....the consumers, would rather read about how this software will improve their life, make them slimmer, make them famous, make them rich, etc. than figure out if the manufacturer is screwing them or not.
I am pretty sure (I will have to look for references to back me up on this) that the EULA has been challenged a few times based on this. I seem to recall a couple vendors being admonished for including crap in the EULA knowing that nobody reads it. It may depend on the judge you get, but I think that if there is an assumption by both the vendor and the consumer that nobody reads the EULA in the first place they fail to hold any weight in court. Any lawyers or judges on this list that can support or deny this?

McAfee had in their EULA that you could not review their product without their express written consent. Basically, they wanted censorship approval before any review would be published. This was shot down by a New York judge recently and I think its still in the appeals process (NY AG Press Release

I'm sorry. But DMCA supposed to modernize copyright works? (laws?) It doesn't do a thing. No law yet that I have seen will deal effectively with the issue of copyright as long as the idea of the fact that information should be free exists.
To clarify, I said supposed to modernize copyright law and went on to say it failed miserably. I don't know if I agree with the second part per se. Are there those that think the information on the Internet should all be free? Sure. But there are those who think that the information in books should be free and those that think there should be no income tax- that doesn't mean they can't make laws about it.

I think I understand where you are coming from though. The whole concept of copyright law is virtually impossible to oversee and control in a 24/7 global environment like the Internet. You caught some plagiarism of my works here on AO recently. I have no way of knowing how many other individuals have stolen or plagiarized my work and how many places it may be posted around the world.

The DMCA doesn't hit the mark. I don't think its even possible for a law to encompass the whole issue. It is too complex dealing with the laws of every country on the Internet. I don't have the answer- thats for damn sure.