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Hacker News
6/10

EULA Decoder

An AI layer that reads the EULAs and ToS of every digital purchase at checkout and tells you in plain language whether you actually own it or just rent it.

Target user

Everyday consumers who buy digital movies, books, and games without reading 30-page legal docs

Features
  • Browser extension that flags risky licensing terms before you click Buy
  • Plain-language verdict on each storefront: 'You own a license, not the file'
  • Comparison of ownership terms across Apple, Amazon, Sony, Google, Steam
  • Library-wide risk report ranking your existing purchases by revocability
Why now

The Sony deletions, paired with growing mainstream awareness of digital ownership issues, makes consumers newly open to a tool that explains what they're actually buying

Signals · overall 6/10
Demand
7/10

Sony deletion of 550+ Studio Canal titles drew major coverage (Ars Technica, IGN, CBR, GameRant, MovieWeb) and 379-point Hacker News thread, confirming strong consumer frustration and viral demand moments around digital ownership transparency.Sony erases digital content from libraries; we're reminded we don't own what we buyPlayStation Deleting More Than 550 Movies from PSN Accounts

Whitespace
4/10

Multiple established competitors already exist in the general EULA/ToS decoding space: ToS;DR (community project since 2012), Clause Claw, ContractFocus browser extension, and the chari062/tos-decoder GitHub project — leaving only a narrow 'point-of-purchase' niche truly open.Terms of Service; Didn't ReadClause Claw - AI Terms of Service Analyzer & EULA ReaderContractFocus browser extension

Monetization
4/10

Existing ToS tools are largely free/open-source (ToS;DR is volunteer-run, ContractFocus has free tier, GitHub tos-decoder is open source); willingness to pay for a low-frequency checkout tool is unproven and unvalidated by current paid competitors.ToS;DR About page — volunteer community projectAI Terms Of Service Summarizer guide (iweaver)

Longevity
7/10

Structural problem persists as digital licensing replaces sales, and California's AB 2426 is forcing transparency — but if regulation compels platforms to disclose plainly, a third-party decoder becomes less necessary over time.Digital Ownership Rights and Licensing: What You Really Own OnlinePlayStation Store Deleting 551 Digital Purchases, Offers No Refunds

Feasibility
7/10

Core LLM summarization of EULAs is trivial, but the real engineering challenge is maintaining a database of platform terms and integrating at checkout across many storefronts (PSN, Steam, Kindle, iTunes) where APIs are closed.

Sony deletes a movies from the accounts of people who ‘bought’ them · 379 points · 219 commentsHacker News · 2026-07-16 (8d ago)