Quote - People keep saying: "buy the software". You don't buy software: you buy a licence to use the software.

This varies; you actually can buy software, you can license software, and you can buy a copy of software to use, depending on what you actually buy. You probably rather seldomly buy software, but often buy a copy (this is what you do if you get a dvd, for example).

Quote - That licence comes with an agreement (End User Licence Agreement). You are bound to the terms of that agreement (in any civilised part of the world where the courts can take you to task for breaking the terms of that agreement - wouldn't know about certain 3rd-world countries, of course)...

Especially the EULAs of software bought from international operating software companies are formulated in a way, that they try to cover most of the countries this software is shipped to. This often means, that parts of these EULAs do not apply in one or the other country (this has nothing to do with 3rd world), it is simply because the companies do not want to make a seperate license agreement for each country they want to sell their software to. So you always have to look at each case and part of the EULA seperately. Take for example amazon. I have got my Poser from amazon. Is this legal? Amazon probably did not agree to Posers license agreement, because the license says "not transferable", but somehow amazon transfered this license to me, do you think they are fences and i am a criminal? What if you buy Poser as a gift for your spouse? Should this be allowed? Most EULAs do not allow that, yet it is legal in most countries (western world included). The USA have the first sale doctrine for these cases, but it varies from state to state and most other countries do not have an equivalent at all.

Quote - Kawecki: The EULA is not the law, ...

RobinsVeil: Hmmm, I think Microsoft would find your point of view very interesting. Very interesting, indeed

I do not exactly understand what that should mean, but for the innocent bystander: Microsoft is a company not only known for it's operating systems, but also known for products such as Internet Explorer and Office. And with these (among other things) they made themselves quite a name for their systematic infringements of patent laws (a specialization of copyright law). Judging from the sheer number of cases Microsoft is sued for infringement each year, BionicRooster's suggestion of erasing your hard disk and installing windows is probably the easiest way to install a big amount of unlicensed  software without actually getting sued (after losing a case they usually spent large amounts of money to avoid being forced to take back their software from their customers).

Quote - MacMyers: The Eula is the Law. It is a binding Contract that YOU agree to abide by when you install the software...
I think I live in a 3rd World State.

Even though directly opposing Kawecki's statement, i think the distinction is not to be made among 3rd world or not, but rather by a distinction between democratic or absolutistic regimes. Democratic regimes obey the principles of separation of power, meaning you can write in your EULAs what you want, but if someone violates them, it is still up to the judges to decide if it was illegal or not. Not to the one writing the EULAs and even less to some crazy forum posters, like me, so perhaps you live in an absolutistic country rather than 3rd world.